
Book * JLs& 
Copyright^ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




J.JZ&-, 



s7^£sS 



Addresses 



on 



Christian Endeavor Topics 



♦ ♦ ♦ by ♦ ♦ ♦ 

) 

J^Vr BURNETT, 

Pastor First Christian Church, 

Muncie, Indiana* 



Author of "The Origin and Principles of the Christ- 
ians r "The American Christian Convent ion/' 



"FOR CHRIST AND THE CHURCH » 
The World for Christ, and Christ for the World. 



3s. 



(LIBRARY Of CONGRESS I 
Two Copies Received 

NOV 2 1904 

Copyrisnt £ntry 
EgsTgt X&, No: 
7 COPY B. 



COPYRIGHTED 1904. 



Christian Publishing Association, 
Dayton, Ohio. 



rt 



3! 






Contents. 

Preface 5 

The Inlook, the Uplook and the Outlook 7 

The Young People's Society of Christian En- 
deavor a National Safeguard 31 

The Winning Society 51 

The Eight Endeavorer 71 

The Good Looking Endeavorer. 91 

The Consecrated Endeavorer Ill 



PREFACE. 

The addresses contained in this little volume, 
were originally prepared without any thought of 
their publication, and were given at several annual 
Conferences and Christian Endeavor Conventions, 
and in a series to my congregation in the First 
Christian Church, Muncie, Indiana, where they were 
kindly received and commended, and it is partly 
at the suggestion of some who heard them, and 
partly with the hope that they may stimulate the 
young life of the church to a deeper consecration, 
and a wider usefulness in the cause of the Master, 
that they have been prepared for publication, and 
given to the public in this form. 

They are also given with the sincere hope, that 
one more capable to instruct and stimulate the 
active young membership of our churches, may soon 
follow with wiser and better counsels. 

It will doubtless seem to many that having said 
what I have, that I should have gone farther and 
said something upon the many other points of this 
great work, which would have been done, but for the 
reason that I felt that I had neither time, nor talent, 
for such a task. 

There has been no effort to appear scholarly, or 
profound, in these addresses, but to say plain truths, 
in a plain way, and to point out what seemed to me, 
to be the true sphere of Christian Endeavor, to cry 
out against sin, and to lift my voice in warning 
where I saw dangers. If to any degree this has been 



6 



done, I shall feel amply repaid, and shall have ac- 
complished the purpose for which I wrote. 

Of the defects of these addresses, no one can 
be more conscious than he who wrote them, but with 
a fervent prayer than God may bless them to His 
own glory, and the good of the many hundreds of 
young people to whose prayers and faithful service 
all of us owe much for the success of our efforts, 
this little volume is now sent upon its mission. 



jjzs. 



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Muncie, Indiana, May 21, 1904, 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK. 

When we deal with the Young People's Society 
of Christian Endeavor we deal with the mightiest 
problem of the church and the greatest force for 
good in modern times. What the church of the 
future is to be, and do, is determined by what the 
church is and does today. 

All action has reference to the future, and 
possesses and exerts a moulding and determining 
influence. We are what we are, and do what we do, 
because of what others were and did. The present is 
the product of the past, and the future will be the 
product of the present. The power and activities 
of the future church are being wrought out in the 
character of the present. I represent in my life 
the sum total of all the influences which have 
touched me throughout all the past. We cannot 
escape the past, nor can the future escape the 
present. Mr Beecher was fond of saying : "You 
think that one hour buries another; but it is not 
so. You think that you have parted forever from 
the things which have passed by you. No, you have 
not. There is much in your life that you think has 
gone which you never shall part from. It has 
stepped behind you ; and there it waits. That which 
vou have done will be with vou to-morrow. When 
the mason carries up the wall, the course of brick 
which he laid yesterday is the foundation on which 
he is laying another course today. And all that you 
do to-day on the structure which you are building 



8 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 

will remain as a basis for that which you do to- 
morrow." 

We are the product of the past, the sum total 
of all that has gone before. In our character is 
represented the thought, the life, the love, the hate, 
the tears, the prayers, the defeats, the victories, the 
hopes and the associations of the past, and we are 
breathing our lives into the life of the future with 
and unvarying and unceasing force. 

The young life of to-day will represent us to- 
morrow with an intensified activity and with all the 
peculiar shades and particular features of our lives. 
Every life is very largely a duplicate of some other 
life. In the patriot of today is something of the 
Washington of 1776; in the dramatist of to-day is 
represented the Shakespeare of the long ago; in 
the poet of to-day is found the Milton, the Long- 
fellow and the Whittier of the days gone by, and 
in the future life and work of the church will be 
found the life and character of the present. No 
action ends with itself. As Paul puts it, "No man 
liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself." An 
action is a link in the endless chain of human events, 
and its circle embraces the earth and includes all 
time; and the future will most certainly contain 
every thought and action of the present. 

THE INLOOK. 

We want to take a square and honest look at 
ourselves as Christian Endeavorers, and in a most 
impartial way scrutinize this great movement, and 
in doing so we shall find, that, 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 9 

It was the result of a long felt want. 

We misunderstand and misinterpret events. We 
do not study causes and see how a way off in the 
future years, results may be reached from an action 
of to-day, nor how a response to a long felt want 
may be delayed. 

The story of the Christian Endeavor movement 
has long been a familiar one, and yet it never can 
become common place, for the reason that it has 
such romantic features and far reaching influences. 

The society originated in a revival, which, in the 
winter of 1881, was being held in Williston Church 
Portland, Maine. There had been for some years 
much earnest work in that church with the young 
people. Rev. Francis E. Clark, the pastor, had been 
conducting a large pastor's class of boys and girls, 
whose members were bound to their work by a 
pledge very similar to the present Christian En- 
deavor pledge. A girls' missionary band, the Miz- 
pah Circle, had been conducted by the earnest wife 
of the pastor; and so, when it seemed necessary to 
introduce new methods in order to set to work the 
enthusiastic young converts made by the revival, 
the soil was all ready for the planting. 

On the evening of February 2, 1881, the first 
Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor was 
formed in the pastor's study, with essentially the 
present constitution, pledge, and methods of work. 
The first signer was Mr. W. H. Pennell. 

Dr. Clark was led to publish accounts of the 
young people's work of his church in the Congrega- 
tionalits and Sunday School Times during the sum- 



10 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 

mer of 1881, which created widespread interest in 
the work. 

In October, 1881, the second society was formed 
at Newburyport, Massachusetts. Before the end of 
the year four more societies were formed, in Rhode 
Island (in a Christian church), in Maine, Vermont, 
and Ohio. 

In March, 1884, the first Junior society was or- 
ganized at Tabor, Iowa. 

The one supremely important question with Dr. 
Clark, was, what to do with the young people of his 
congregation. How shall they be trained for ser- 
vice? How shall they be developed into strong, 
active men and women? How shall this young life 
so bouyant, so vigorous, so hopeful be utilized for 
God's cause? These and many similar ones, were 
questions that stood up to be heard and would not 
be content without an answer. The Rev. Dr. Clark 
was deeply conscious of his responsibility and was 
well aware of the great possibilities wrapped up in 
the character of that strong young life and knew 
that if only it could be properly developed and 
directed it would form a live moving power for good 
in his local church, and would ultimately become 
a vital energy in the "World-wide Evangelization." 

But the question of what to do with the young 
life of the church did not originate with Dr. Clark. 
It was as old as the church itself. It had been 
asked by each succeeding generation since the world 
began. Ministers, parents, teachers and guardians 
had again and again repeated the inquiry and sought 
to solve the problem. For many years preceding 
the organization of the Christian Endeavor Society 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 11 

no one question had been more prominent in the 
church, than "How shall we bring our boys and 
girls to Christ and train them for His service?" 
It is not an exaggeration to say that this question 
is above all others, even now, agitating the mind 
of the church. Scarcely is there a public gathering 
of the churches of any denomination but this ques- 
tion forces itself to the front in some form, and it 
is one of the healthiest and most encouraging facts 
of the times that pastors and churches are willing 
to devote so much patient thought to the solution of 
the problem. That question of the centuries was to 
a very great degree correctly answered in the brain 
and plans of the Rev. Dr. Clark when he organized 
the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. 
The church had long needed and earnestly desired 
the utilization of the vigorous young brain and 
heart of its membership, and as a result of that want 
we have the Young People's Society of Christian En- 
deavor, the like of which was not known before and 
for usefulness will not be excelled in all the years 
to come. 

One fact standing out most prominently and 
well worthy of recognition, is, that the Society of 
Christian Endeavor is of the church and for the 
church. Experience has proven that so far from 
alienating the young people from the church it has 
brought many more of them into the regular prayer 
meetings, has made them more active in these meet- 
ings and has led them to bring back and center their 
activities in channels of church work, instead of 
dissapating them in organizations outside the 
church. 



12 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK . . . 

The Young People's Society of Christian En- 
deavor is no patent process for turning out young 
Christians. It is no labor saving device to save the 
pastor from work and the church from responsi- 
bility; but when rightly managed will prove in 
every case an indispensible right hand to the pastor 
and church in doing their work for Christ. 

It was in response to the demand of the future. 

The past had been saying, What can we 
do with the young people? The future sent back 
the cry, "What can we do without them ?" Out from 
the ages yet unborn, from the generations yet to be, 
came back the real question, "What can you do 
with the young life of the church?" The young life 
of the church must be organized and utilized, not 
for its own sake, but for Christ's sake, and for 
what it is capable of doing for the church. The 
young life of the church has the brightest eyes with 
which to see, the clearest brain with which to com- 
prehend, the purest heart with which to feel, the 
sweetest voice with which to sing, the brightest 
hopes with which to inspire, the strongest faith 
with which to trust, the acutest ear with which to 
hear, the readiest feet with which to run, the most 
impressionable soul on which to write, the most 
winsome ways with which to attract, the strongest 
life with which to serve, why not harness it up and 
have it do service for God and His cause? 

I am old enough to remember the old time 
ways. Our meeting houses had "Amen Corners" 
in which sat the supposedly pious people of the 
church, who with grave demeanor and solemn faces 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 13 

were expected to frown upon everything they 
deemed impious. In one of the churches of my 
early ministry were the well known and the time 
honored "Amen Corners." The young people of the 
church drove the brethren out of their corner and 
converted the space into a choir platform, but the 
good old sisters were not so easily influenced and 
held their ground and stayed in their accustomed 
places, and to show their disapproval of such con- 
duct some of the young ladies of the church named 
the corner the "dried fruit row." Far be it for me 
to speak lightly of those dear old souls who, in the 
days gone by, bore the burdens of the church and did 
their work to the glory of God equally well, if not 
better than we of to-day are doing ours. But with 
all the deep piety and fervent spirit of that age, 
they did not conceive the tremendous power of the 
young life of the church and made no effort whatever 
to use it for good. In the old time congregation 
the preacher would be as grave as a sign post, and 
the young people would congregate in the rear of 
the building and often hold high carnival with 
frivolity while the preacher would scold, and fret 
and fail. In these rear seats would be the smart 
young man and the giggling girl, and if she had a 
beau, she giggled twice, and if it was her first beau, 
she outdid the famous Betsy Short of the Hoosier 
Schoolmaster at giggling. It did not enter the 
mind of the church at that time to organize that 
healthy, hopeful, vigorous young life into service 
for the Master. The church simply wanted it to 
behave itself, and I have known men to be appointed 
by the preacher and charged with the duty of "keep- 



14 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 

ing order during service." It was never thought, 
that, that mighty force could be organized and 
wheeled into line for God's cause. It is true that 
all recognized the necessity of doing something and 
the one question asked by preachers, deacons, Sun- 
day-school Superintendents, parents, pastors, and 
teachers, was, What can we do? To these earnest 
desires of the people of the past, came the demand 
of the future, which when united gave us the 
mightiest movement in church work of all the cen- 
turies. The possibilities of this organization with 
regard to the young manhood and womanhood of the 
church and the nation, the home and our social in- 
stitutions, are greater than we have realized. The 
intimations of these possibilities raise before the 
mind a splendid vision of the future. 

Dean Stanley, when in this country, said that 
when he first saw the cataract at Niagara — which 
was at midnight in the light of a full moon — he saw 
an emblem of our noisy, restless, distracting Ameri- 
can life. But as he gazed, there rose into the moon- 
lit sky a cloud of silvery spray twice as high as the 
falls — silent, majectic, unmovable. "In that silver 
column," he says, "I saw an image of the future of 
American destiny, that should emerge from the 
distractions of the present. Such a vision comes up 
to us in view of the possibilities of the young peo- 
ple's movement. When the faults, which* we per- 
ceive and own are corrected, and the powers for 
good that are in our hands are better realized, then 
a majestic, supernal glory shall appear in the work 
of the Young People's Society of Christian En- 
deavor. 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 15 
THE UPLOOK. 

There is an uplook to this society which to me 
is indeed gratifying and encouraging. The uplook re- 
sults from both the internal and external conditions. 
The flower looks up into the face of the sun and 
seems to say "Good Morning" and the sun smiles 
back upon the flower with radiant beams and says 
"Come this way." There is something in the flower 
that pushes it out into bloom, and there is something 
ontside the flower that draws it out into perfect 
loveliness and beauty. The life on the inside and the 
sun on the outside pushes and pulls in perfect har- 
mony with each other for the good of the flower. 
Jesus said "And I, if I be lifted up will draw all 
men unto me." Jesus Christ when lifted up is the 
drawing power outside the society. The Holy Ghost 
within the life of each individual member pushes 
toward the exalted Christ, so that, that which is 
without and that which is within work together 
in giving an up-look and an up-lift to the whole 
organization. 

I wish to name a few things which, in my judg- 
ment, gives the society a decided up look; and first 
of all, and perhaps the most important of all, I 
mention, 

The Pledge. Some people are afraid of a prom- 
ise; so much afraid that they won't even promise 
to be good ; they won't promise to pay the preacher ; 
they won't promise to take up a collection; they 
even hesitate to promise themselves in marriage, 
or to go to heaven w T hen they die. But if I read 
my Bible correctly, the great and good men whose 



16 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 

life history we find therein recorded, were not 
afraid of obligating themselves to the Lord and to 
one another by solemn vows. Abraham, Isaac, 
Jacob, Moses, David, Daniel and many others, put 
themselves under vows and were faithful in keep- 
ing them. By these vows they were held to the 
higher life and better way. The Young People of 
the Christian Endeavor Society are not afraid of 
making promises, nor are they slack in keeping 
them. Here is what each member solemnly prom- 
ises to do: 

"Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, 
I promise him that I will strive to do whatever he 
would like to have me do. That I will make it the 
rule of my life, to pray, and to read the Bible every 
day, and to support my own church in every way, 
especially by attending all her regular and mid- 
week services, unless prevented by some reason 
which I can conscientiously give to my Saviour, 
and that just so far as I know how, throughout my 
whole life, I will endeavor to lead a Christian life. 
As an active member, I promise to be true to all 
my duties, to be present at, and to take some part, 
aside from singing, in every Christian Endeavor 
prayer meeting, unless hindered by some reason 
which I can conscientiously give to my Lord and 
Master. If obliged to be absent from the monthly 
consecration meeting of the society, I will, if possi- 
ble send at least a verse of scripture to be read in 
response to my name at the roll-call." 

The advantages of this definite and specific 
pledge are many and obvious. It lays an obligation 
upon every young Christian who joins the society 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 17 

which he himself willingly agrees to perform for 
Christ's sake. It does not waste its force in glitter- 
ing generalities. 

Once each week the hour comes which he has 
promised to set apart for this service. He cannot 
lightly neglect this duty without breaking a sol- 
emn promise — a promise which he has made to his 
companions, and which they in turn have made to 
him in joining the society. Such a pledge, experi- 
ence has proved, is solemnly adhered to. Scores of 
thousands of young people, whose ranks are being 
swelled every month by thousands of others, have 
taken this pledge, and are keeping it loyally. 

The young person who takes this pledge, how- 
ever, does not promise, and is not understood to 
promise, to make a speech in every prayer-meeting, 
or to offer a long prayer in every service. There is 
a great difference to be observed between a speech 
and a proper participation in the meeting. A pro- 
fessional prayer-meeting speech-maker, is an abom- 
ination. He who always takes a simple, appro- 
priate part is a delight and constant refreshment. 

The Meetings. Once a week the society meets 
for worship. Here the Bible is read, prayers are 
offered, and songs are sung, and every heart is filled 
with love, and every life looks up to God. In many 
churches, even now, and there were many more 
before they felt the influence of the Christian En- 
deavorer, in which the prayer-meetings had given 
place to a weekly lecture or a sort of a machine 
made worship. The pastor gives a more or less 
elaborate address of fifteen or twenty minutes in 
length, the aged deacons offer prayer, the long 



18 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 

pauses are skillfully bridged, so far as possible, 
with sacred song, and the small audience disperses 
decorously, with the consolation that if they haven't 
had a very interesting or lively meeting, yet, at 
least, things have been done "decently and in 
order." Such a spiritless, nerveless service is not 
likely to occur in a church where there is a good 
active Endeavor society. It may be truly said that 
the chief feature of the organization is the prayer 
meeting. To be sure much other work is to be 
done; but after all from the weekly prayer meeting 
emanates the most of the influences which are de- 
signed for the nurture of the young Christian, and 
the society that does not make the weekly prayer- 
meeting of paramount importance has no right to 
the name Christian Endeavor. From the very first 
the prayer meeting has been the main feature of the 
organization and it is gratifying to know that the 
original aim has never been forgotten in all the 
subsequent growth and development of the society. 
Organization. As we know, we are living in an 
age of organization. I heard not long ago of an 
Irishman, who said, he saw on one corner of a square 
in New York City a school house, and said of it, 
"that is organized education/' on another corner of 
the same square he saw a church and called that 
"organized salvation," on the third corner he saw 
a council chamber and said "that is organized leg- 
islation" and on the fourth corner he saw a saloon 
and called it "organized damnation." The Irish- 
man was right, especially in his last definition. 
Now the Young People's Society of Christian En- 
deavor comes with a perfect organization. It has 



THE IN LOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 19 

organized salvation, and organized education, and 
organized legislation, and with a mighty hand 
hurls them against organized damnation, and has 
been doing it most successfully for the past twenty- 
three years. The perfection of its organization is 
found in the plan and purpose of its committees. 
The church did not know what flowers were for 
until the Christian Endeavor Society appointed a 
flower committee. Now the flowers do double ser- 
vice, they adorn our pulpits at the Sunday service, 
and shed their fragrance in the sick room of some 
member or friend thereafter until they wither 
and die. The prayer-meeting committee means good 
leaders for the prayer meeting, and a good com- 
mittee is a great help to the meetings. To be sure 
a meeting conducted wholly by the young and inex- 
perienced of the church may lack some of the good 
habits of the older people and develop some crudi 
ties and oddities which to the older and more sedate 
might seem unholy, but such conformities as the 
older ones might enjoy is often gained at the expense 
of a life and power which can never profitably be ex- 
changed for regulations. A forest of living trees, 
even if some of the trees do lack symmetry and are 
overgrown with tangled creepers, is vastly better 
than a forrest of dead and sapless trunks. 

The Look-Out Committee means a careful and 
kindly looking after the absent members, and while 
perhaps there is no part of the work more sadly 
neglected than this, it is yet invaluable to the society. 
When I was yet quite young I gave my name to the 
church, and had I been looked after as much as I 
was looked at, I am sure I should have been a better 



20 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 

man and a more efficient minister. Under the ar- 
rangement of the society, if any attend who do not 
habitually participate in the meeting or absent 
themselves without excuse, the Look-Out Committee 
is expected to remind them of their duty and in an 
affectionate way urge them to attendance and par- 
ticipation. But is not hard feelings engendered by 
such "looking-out ?" it may be asked. By no means 
is hard feelings a necessary result of such service. 
The Committee is not engaged in gratuitious es- 
pionage "spotting" unfaithful ones here and there. 
The committee was elected for this purpose and by 
the very ones who are thus "looked out" for, and as 
a committee they would be untrue to their duty if 
they did not do this very thing, and so far as experi- 
ence has spoken, nothing but good results have come 
from the efforts of a committee thus constituted and 
sent out. The Sunday School Committee means a 
larger attendance at Sunday-school, and the Mis- 
sionary Committee means the instillment of mis- 
sionary sentiments, the deepening and quickening of 
the missionary spirit, and the carrying out of plans 
which mean money and missionaries for the home 
and foreign fields. Our own Christian Endeavor 
societies of New England have been supporting a 
missionary in Japan for the past several years. 

From a Short History of Christian Endeavor 
Movement by Amos B. Wells, I quote the following : 

"It has penetrated into the icy north; to the 
mission stations of Alaska. It has grown rapidly 
in Old Mexico, West India Islands. Central and 
South America, It is found in the South Sea Islands, 
New Zealand, Australia, Japan, China, Burmah, 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND 1HE OUTLOOK 21 

India, Persia, and Africa. Even Madagascar and 
inhospitable Turkey afford it a sheltering nook. 
Also, nearly if not quite every European country 
(except Czar-cursed Russia) has one or more En- 
deavor societies." 

"Also, like a much-advertised soap, 'it floats.' 
There are at present ninety -two floating societies on 
men-of-war, in navy yards, etc. The first floating 
society was organized on the United States revenue 
steamer Dexter, in April, 1890." 

The Social Committee has a definite field and 
a specific work and as a rule its work is well done. 
We have a social side to our nature which must not 
be neglected and to this especial work the Social 
Committee gives attention. There are no fads nor 
foolishness to be foisted upon the people, but there 
is one and only one purpose in all the social life of 
the society, and that is to lead the soul to Christ 
and develop it into his life and character. Social to 
Save, may be put down as the legitimate object of 
all the social life of the society. 

THE OUTLOOK. 

Does this organization furnish any out look for 
the church of the future? Has it any promise of 
power and life for the days to come? These and 
similar questions have often been asked by those 
who were interested in the church, but who were not 
thoroughly in touch with the young and growing 
members. This organized effort of the young people 
promised in the very beginning a new era in church 
work, and it has faithfully kept its promise and 



22 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 

fully met every obligation. It furnishes an outlook 
for the pastor and older members of the church. 
Without appearing to spy them out or watch them, 
the wise pastor can, while attending the weekly 
prayer meeting, as every pastor ought to do, learn 
something of the spiritual conditions of every young 
member of his church. 

But after all, the best argument is what is 
known as the "fruit argument." Not only have these 
societies increased in numbers in a way that is 
phenominal, but most encouraging reports of re- 
newed earnestness arid interest in spiritual matters 
among the young people, thus organized, come from 
all parts of the country. Hundreds of revivals have 
been traced directly to these societies and very 
largely the accessions to the church may be traced 
to the efforts of the Young People's Society of Chris- 
tian Endeavor. 

There are four things which this society 
promises to the local church: (1) Dignity. Some 
of us are wonderfully afraid of Christian dignity. 
We cannot think it consistent with a Christian ex- 
perience and service to be dignified, and we repeat 
the old, meaningless platitude, "the church is dying 
of respectability," and with it ease our conscience. 
The word dignity primarily means to make worthy, 
and in this sense the Young People's Society of 
Christian Endeavor gives dignity to the church. It 
makes it worthy of a place in the community and 
the confidence of the people. I would not be unjust 
in my criticism, nor unkind in my spirit toward the 
churches, that have not the blessing and advantages 
of the Christian Endeavor Society, but am bold in 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 23 

saying that some churches really lack worthiness, 
and the lack of worthiness results from their unwil- 
lingness to utilize the power and life of the young 
people and in my humble judgment the time will 
come when the church without an organization for 
its young people will be classed among the un- 
worthy institutions of the land. 

(2) Material Help. The expenses of the 
church are of necessity constantly increasing and 
must be promptly met. The Society of Christian 
Endeavor has never hesitated, so far as known to 
me, in bearing its full share of the financial burdens. 
At Muncie, Indiana, where I am now (February, 
1904) pastor, the society is young in years and small 
in membership, but besides paying $2.50 a month 
to the incidental expenses of the church, $.50 a 
month to the publishing fund of the church, and 
keeping up all the demands upon it for the general 
cause, subscribed and paid to the Building Fund of 
the new church $50, put in a beautiful window, and 
on the day of dedication subscribed $300.00 more to 
the Building Fund, every dollar of which will be 
promptly paid according to agreement. 

(3) Enlarged Membership. It is a fact beyond 
controversy that the increase in church membership 
comes from the young people. If we do not get 
them while they are young, we do not get them at all. 
Conversions after forty years of age are very rare; 
like the scattered grapes on the remotest branches 
after the vintage is over, there is only one here and 
there. Doctor Thomas said, "I have sometimes seen 
an old, withered oak standing with its stiff and 
leafless branches on the slopes of a hill, though the 



24 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 

same refreshing rains and genial sunshine fell on it 
as on its thriving neighbors which were green with 
renewed youth and rich in flowing foliage: it grew 
not, it gave no signs of life, it was too far gone for 
genial nature to assist. The old blanched sapless 
oak is an emblem of the aged sinner." 

I have been in the ministry more than a quarter 
of a century and I here publicly state that I do not 
now call to mind as many as three persons over fifty 
years of age whom I have ever heard ask the solemn 
and infinitely momentous question, " What , shall I 
do to be saved?" When we have learned as minis- 
ters and churches that our increase in membership 
must of necessity come from the young people, we 
shall have learned the infinite importance of win- 
ning them from sin to God in the morning of life. 

(4) Inspiration. One of the great needs of 
the church is inspiration. Human inspiration as 
well as Divine is greatly needed in our church work. 
When I step out on Sunday morning from my room 
before my audience, many dear old faces radiant 
with love and expressive of hope, greet me with 
a kindly welcome, the like of which cannot come 
from any other source, and I see in their counten- 
ances the glow of an early victory, the promise of a 
triumphant entrance into the Eternal Presence, and 
there comes to my heart an inspiration deep and 
strong. But the long weary day of these dear old 
souls is almost ended. The sun of their life is 
already setting, and if there comes not after them 
a mighty troop to battle for the right our defeat is 
a foregone conclusion, and our history must close 
with a record of failure. An old Roman senator 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 25 

once stood upon a balcony while the citizens of 
Rome paraded her streets. At the head of the grand 
procession were the veterans of the army, and when 
the old senator looked down upon them he lifted 
his hands and cried, "What will become of my 
country when they have passed away?" Next in 
procession came the flower of the Roman army, men 
of sterling worth, and when the old senator looked 
down upon them he lifted his hands again and 
cried, "What will become of my country when these 
have passed away?" Next in procession came the 
flower of the Roman army, men of sterling worth, 
and when the old senator looked down upon them 
he lifted his hands again and cried, "What 
will become of my country when these have 
passed away?" Next, came the citizens of 
Rome and at last a great company of children with 
happy voices and smiling faces, and when the old 
senator looked down upon them he lifted up his 
hands and cried, "My country's safe! My country's 
safe!!" As I stand on the platform of my church 
and see passing down the valley into the shades of 
the gathering gloom the old heroes and heroines of 
the by gone days, I ask "What will become of my 
church when these are gone?" but when I hear the 
happy voices and see the smiling faces of the 
promising young people and look down upon lives 
filled with joy and sunshine, I lift my hands and 
shout, "My church is safe, My church is safe !" 

As to the out look for the church in general we 
may mention its attitude toward the great questions 
of the day, the solution of which must be by the men 
and women of the future. 



26 THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 

(1) The Temperance Question. With the 
great issue of temperance we must deal. From its 
consideration and settlement there is no escape. 
Lincoln said, "this nation could not exist one half 
free and the other half slave." With equal truth- 
fulness, it may be said, that this nation cannot exist 
one half drunk and the other half sober. The church 
of the present is a little afraid to tackle this great 
question. At least it touches it quite gingerly and 
with evident care, lest its individual members might 
suffer from political or commercial embarassment. 

We know that the political life of the world is 
corrupt; voters are bribed, election schemes have 
degenerated into frauds and the polls are the merest 
shams. There has been so little change in political 
tricks and tricksters in years past, that like a pool 
long quiet, stagnation and impurity has been the 
result. Temperance should be as much a part of 
the churches' active Christian work as any other one 
thing included in its curriculum of labor for souls. 
But we know it is not. Creed, dogma, and denomina- 
tional peculiarities have an upper seat in the syna- 
gogue of our hearts. But with the young life of the 
church, it is not so. It is not afraid to pass resolu- 
tions in conventions, to utter its voice, clear, strong 
and loud, in favor of temperance, decency, and good 
government, and when this great question which has 
so long agitated the mind and heart of the church 
shall have been settled, and the liquor traffic which 
has so long crushed, stabbed and ruined the home 
and heart of this country, shall be forever destroyed, 
to the now young manhood and womanhood of the 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 27 

church the honor of its settlement and the glory of 
its ruin, shall be given. 

(2) Christian Union. We all desire it. We 
all long for it, and pray that it may come, and yet 
many of us are doing the things that most of all 
retard its coming. Those of us whose hair is 
mixed with gray, know something of the dissensions 
in the church life of the past. We know something 
of that time when on Sunday morning the theo- 
logical batteries would be opened from every pulpit 
of the land and the ecclesiastical pop guns would 
bang and batter through all the morning hour. 
Trinity, total depravity, vicarious atonement, orig- 
inal sin, baptism and similar subjects were the 
powerful missiles that would be hurled by the theo- 
logical combatants into the faces (they seldom went 
deeper) of their patient (?) hearers. My old Sun- 
day-school teacher could drive from the field and 
put to route, the doctrinal hosts that might be 
encamped against him, in the shortest imaginable 
time, and then with an air of "didn't I do it quick" 
he would smile down upon us poor suffering boys 
who heartily wished that the house might fall down, 
and yet he was our hero, and we loved him. The 
question of Union is not discussed by the Young 
People's Society of Christian Endeavor, but is lived, 
and the great questions that caused dissension and 
division in the years gone by are wholly unknown 
to the young heart and life of the church, and when 
the redeemed of earth shall join the hosts of the 
sky in singing, 



28 THE IN LOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 

"Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love, 
The fellowship of kindred minds 
Is like to that above/' 

and the angels shall come again to earth and whis- 
per to every soul "Glory to God in the highest, and 
on earth peace good will to men" to the Young 
People's Society of Christian Endeavor that did not 
argue nor defend, plan nor devise for union, but 
simply lived it, shall the honor and glory be given. 
(3) Capital and Labor. There is no lack of 
harmony between capital and labor. There never 
has been, and there never can be, but there is ap- 
parently an uncompromising war between the capi- 
talist and the laborer. This war cannot be settled 
by political methods, nor by arbitration, nor by liti- 
gation, nor by agitation, nor by any other means of 
human origin. Nothing but the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ can settle the question of labor and capital 
and harmonize into loving fellowship the capitalist 
and the laborer, and ultimately the church will be 
called upon to deal with this vast and far-reaching 
problem. It will be at a time when those who have 
been trained and drilled in our Young People's So- 
ciety of Christian Endeavor shall be in charge of the 
affairs of the church and state, when in the fulness 
of time, and the ripeness of thought and character, 
those having the question in hand will quickly find 
the solution of the problem, and will promptly and 
satisfactorily settle all differences. One of the fun- 
damental elements of the society, and one prominent 
purpose for which it lives, is the recognition of 



THE INLOOK, THE UPLOOK, AND THE OUTLOOK 29 

Christianity and good citizenship as one and insep- 
arable. The patriot loses nothing by being a Chris- 
tian, and the Christian loses nothing by being a 
patriot, and when we shall recognize that selfish- 
ness cannot exist in the heart of him who would be 
either Christian or patriot, we shall at once solve 
the problem of labor and capital and then the crown 
shall without question rest upon the brow of the 
men and women who now compose our YOUNG 
PEOPLE'S SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN EN- 
DEAVOR, 



THE YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN EN- 
DEAVOR A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD. 

This a great country, and this a great age, 
and there never was a greater hour in the history 
of this great country than the present one. It was 
predicted in the beginning of our existence that we 
could not live, and the English, the Indian, the 
Devil, and the Dutch did all they could to have the 
prophecy come true. We have whipped the English, 
we have well nigh exterminated the Indian, we have 
domesticated the Dutch and popularized the Devil, 
and I suppose that now we are comparatively safe, 
with a fair prospect of continuance. An old lady 
standing at the casket of her first born who had 
died in her seventy-ninth year, tearfully and sadly 
said, "I knew I could never raise that gal ; they said 
she was too smart." Well, this country has not 
been too smart to be raised, but it has grown too 
wicked to live, and unless there is a change in the 
moral life and practice of this great country, her 
history will close in a gloom darker than night. 

I have said that this is a great country, and 
will name a few things wherein Its greatness is 
found. 

Territory. The old boundary lines will not 
answer for a present geographical description of 
America. Now that we own Alaska, and have 
practically annexed the Philippines, and are in a fair 
way to include England and a few other small 
countries in the circle of our expansion, the boun- 



32 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFE GUARD 

dary lines must be pushed further out. I once 
heard of an Irishman, who said, that ultimately, 
America would be bounded on the east by the rising 
sun, on the west by the setting sun, on the north 
by the Auro-Borealus, and on the south by the Day 
of Judgment. But to be serious our growth has 
been phenomenal. It has taken thousands of years 
to make Europe what it is, but America has devel- 
oped as much civilization in a little more than one 
century. A little more than one hundred years ago 
our population of 6,000,000 was but a thin fringe 
along the shore of the Atlantic, and Ohio was in the 
far west and a frontier state, which to visit meant 
hardship and often death. Since then homes have 
been built and furnished for 70,000,000 of people, 
been brought under a state of high cultivation. For 
forty years of our civilization there was an 
average of 16,000 acres of wild land subdued every 
More than four and one-half million farms have 
day. Five hundred cities have been built. Millions 
of miles of road have been opened to public travel. 
Countless mills and factories have been erected and 
equipped. Eight hundred thousand miles of tele- 
graph wire have been strung and an equal amount 
of telephone wire has been stretched. With steam 
and electricity we have seated the whole world 
around one common hearthstone, and yet we seek 
greater things and more territory. 

Minerals. There are no mines like the American 
mines for quantity and quality. God seems to have 
exhausted Divine Wisdom in packing the rocky 
fastness of America's hills with minerals and metals. 
England's coal lies two thousand feet below the 



THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 33 

surface in a temperature of more than one hundred 
degrees, and there are prophecies that the supply 
will be exhausted within fifty years. Our coal lies 
near the surface. The deposit is several times 
greater than that of all Europe and the supply is 
practically inexhaustible. Our iron is plentiful in 
quantity and first-class in quality. In addition to 
the well known deposit of iron in the East, the West 
is also wonderfully rich in this ore. Not a state 
west of the Mississippi is denied it. Our gold fields, 
our copper beds, our silver veins, and indeed all 
other metal deposits are equal if not superior to 
the best of the world. 

Thinkers. The mightiest problems of the 
world's thinking are wrought out in the brain of 
the American thinker. Problems of philosophy, 
science, religion, sociology, government, politics, 
mechanics, architecture, art, and literature, are 
solved by America's thinkers. We no more go 
abroad for knowledge, but are rapidly becoming 
the Gamaliel of the world at whose feet are sitting 
the nations of the earth. 

Products. Our fields and orchards bring forth 
plentifully of all needful things for private and 
public use in the home land, with an abundance to 
spare for the markets of foreign countries. Eu- 
ropeans have been accustomed to think of the United 
States as the world's great farm, and the thought 
has not been without foundation. With only five 
per cent of the world's population we produce about 
thirty-two per cent of the world's food supply. 
America is noted for one product, the like of which 
is not found anvwhere else on the earth. I refer to 



34 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 

the American Dude. I once saw a definition of the 
American Dude which pleased me very much. It 
defined the thing to be, a cushioned hat rack with 
a hole in it for a cigarette. Well, if that be true, 
my sympathy is with the cigarette. As foul and 
nasty as a cigarette is, it is in bad company when 
it is in the mouth of a Dude. There are two bad 
things about the cigarette; the fire at one end, and 
the Dude at the other. But if I were the cigarette 
I should prefer the fire. It is said that a girl down 
in Georgia married one of these things and thought 
she was getting a man, but found out in a very 
short time that she had only gotten a pair of old 
patched breeches. Girls, it is wise to get married, 
but it is wiser to get a man in the marriage. 

Population. As we have already said our 
growth has been phenominal. An American once 
said to an intelligent and well informed Englishman, 
"England is a great country." "Yes," said he, "but 
yours is greater." When asked why he thought so, 
he said, "America is capable of supporting 500,000,- 
000 of people." Since Pre-historic times the swelling 
population of the "Far East" has rolled westward* 
For thousands of years there was an unoccupied 
land toward the sun set. At length the western 
boundary of Europe was reached but there was still 
a "New World." In small numbers at first, and at 
long intervals, the adventurous colonist crossed the 
Atlantic, but in ever increasing numbers until the 
influx to this country is appalling to say the least. 
There are no more "New Worlds." Of course popu- 
lation will become more dense in this country as the 
years go by, and with population comes compli- 



THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 35 

cation. The simple plans of government that were 
once sufficient, are now altogether insufficient, and 
America, the great and good nation that she is, is 
confronted with conditions which involve her des- 
tiny. If these questions are settled rightly America 
lives ; if settled wrongly, her career must end. I 
am not a pessimist in any sense of the word, but I 
declare it as my honest conviction, that if America 
continues to forsake her God, her God at no distant 
day will forsake her, and Godless America will be 
no better than the other nations whose forgetful- 
ness of God caused their downfall, the death-throws 
of which yet resound in our ears. Scipio-Affricanus 
while standing in sight of burning Carthage ex- 
claimed, 

"The time will come when sacred Troy shall be leveled 

with the plain, 
And Priam and the people of that proud warrior slain." 

When asked what he meant, he said, "Abysinia 
has fallen, Greece has fallen, Carthage is burning 
and Rome's time will come. And Rome's time did 
come, and the blood of her ruin has not been w r ashed 
from the earth until this day. Twenty-five years 
ago a suggestion of our decay or downfall would 
have been offensive to even the most pessimistic of 
our people, but today the most thoughtful and intelli- 
gent among the true friends of this nation, freely 
admit the question of our future to be the most 
serious and disquieting question of the hour. Count 
Tolstoi in an article published in the New York 
World, said, 



36 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 

"America has lost her youth. Her hair is grow- 
ing gray, her teeth are falling out; she is becoming 
senile. Voltaire said that France was rotten before 
she was ripe, but what shall be said of a nation 
whose ideals have perished almost in one genera- 
tion? Your Emersons, Garrisons, and Whittiers 
are all gone. You produce nothing but rich men. 
In the years before and after the Civil War the 
soul-life of your people flowered and bore fruit. 
You are pitiful materialists now." 

That the republic is in the balance no thoughtful 
mind questions. No more critical hour has ever 
come to her than the one that is now striking. 

This nation was born with the name of God 
on its lips and at one time was a veritable Bible 
Society as the following facts will show : 

Congress, in 1777, appointed a committee to 
advise as to the printing of an edition of thirty 
thousand Bibles. The population of this country 
was then only about three millions, and all the 
Bibles of the world did not then exceed four mil- 
lions. The committee, finding it difficult to procure 
material, such as paper and type, recommended 
Congress to direct the committee on commerce to 
"import at the expense of Congress, twenty thousand 
English Bibles, from Holland, Scotland, or else- 
where, into the different ports and states of the 
union." 

The report was adopted and the importation 
ordered. Owing to the Revolutionary War, the im- 
portation could not be made and Congress recom- 
mended to the people of America to purchase Bibles 
of Robert Aitken, of Philadelphia. 



THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 37 

A nation so well born should certainly be a 
favorite child of the Almighty, and would be, if 
we but did our duty. I shall mention a few things 
which to me indicate the conditions and dangers. 

An Increasing Unrest. 

There is restlessness everywhere. Political un- 
rest, social unrest, commercial unrest, religious un- 
rest. Unrest of all kinds and in every place. It is 
indeed a time of war and rumors of war. Govern- 
ments are on the alert. The Cuban, Philippine, 
Boxer and Boer wars, have been so recent that the 
atmosphere has not yet been cleared of the smoke 
and smell of the battlefield, while the Russia-Japan 
war is now raging, and lynching and race wars are 
running riot at high noon. Thirty years ago Dr. 
Talmage addressed the laborers of Brooklyn then 
on a strike, and said among other things, "Go back 
to your planes and your saws, in six months labor 
and capital will kiss each other and there will be per- 
fect harmony between them." Somehow the peace 
failed to arrive on schedule time, and the kiss has 
not yet been given. The trouble is, both the laborer 
and the capitalist want the capital. Never in the 
historv of this nation has there been such vari- 
ance between labor and capital as today. Labor and 
capital are divided into two hostile camps, standing 
over against each other like armed enemies, the one 
carrying weapons in the name of capital, and the 
other carrying weapons in the name of labor. The 
capitalist is all but omnipitent having money for 
comforts, conveniences, travel, equipage. Organized 



38 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 

labor also is a trust almost as influential. Indeed, 
organized labor seems for the time being more 
powerful than organized capital. But it is my pur- 
pose only in calling your attention to these great 
forces, to show that the unrest, the warfare and the 
subsequent classification and suffering of mankind 
is a reality not to be easily disposed of. 

A Tendency Toward a Permanent 
Peasant Class. 

Think as we may, it yet remains true that the 
rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting 
poorer. The tendency of this is to establish an 
aristocracy on one hand and a dependency on the 
other, and at the rate we have been going in this 
direction it will not be long until we shall have out 
done the classifications of the old world. It has 
ever been our boast that we hang the star of hope 
over the cradle of the poor man's child. We have 
made it possible for the rail splitter of Illinois and 
the canal boy of Ohio, to be presidents of this great 
nation, but the sun of such great days has well nigh 
gone down. When I was a boy in school, the preacher, 
teacher and school directors, used to rub my head 
almost bald, while they told of the possibilities of 
me some day being president of the United States. 
They were dear, good, old souls, but they did not 
know much. There has not been any of that sort 
of work going on in our schools very lately. It is 
easier now for a camel to go through the eye of a 
needle, than for the son of a poor man to be elected 
United States Senator. Elihu Root, Ex-Secretary 



THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 39 

of War, has this to say about money and elections : 
"The use of money has come to such a pass at 
the hands of both of the great political parties in 
this country, that we find enormous contributions 
necessary to maintain party machinery, to conduct 
party warfare, and the effect is that great moneyed 
interest, corporate and personal, are exerting yearly 
more and more undue influence in political affairs. 
Great moneyed interests are becoming more and 
more necessary to the support op political par- 
TIES, and political parties are every year contracting 
greater debts to the men who can furnish the money 
to perform the necessary functions of party 
warfare." 

There were once three distinct classes in this 
country : the rich, the poor and the well to do. The 
tendency of the commercial and social spirit of this 
age is to crowd out the middle man. When the well 
to do, gets money enough, he joins the combine, 
merges into the trust and is lost in the great aggre- 
gation of wealth. If he loses his money, he is 
forced out of business, and is lost among the strug- 
gling poor. 

Some years ago I spent a week in New York 
City, and was told while there by a retired merchant, 
that when he first came to New York, a man could 
start quite nicely in business, with a good standing 
in the banks, on a capital of $25,000. "That," said 
he, "was forty-five years ago, but now it requires 
at least $300,000 with which to start in business 
with any degree of respectability, or assurance of 
success." Said a little girl to her Mamma, "Mamma, 
if I am an old maid will I be sour and crusty and 



40 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 

peculiar like Auntie?" "Yes, my dear," said her 
Mamma. "And if I marry, will I have a mean old 
husband like papa?" "Yes, my dear," said she. 
"Well/ said the little girl, "it is pretty hard on us 
women folks isn't it?" 

It seems to me that the out look for the average 
man is rather discouraging no matter from what 
view point we see him. 

Social conditions. Never in the history of the 
world have we had such social conditions as exists 
today. The class question in America is more than 
a ghost. Miss Flipflop, and Miss Gotrox, and Mrs. 
De Gossip, are abroad in the land, and Mrs. De 
Cash is having her pink teas and her afternoon 
socials, while the morning porch parties, at which 
ladies in low neck dresses, play cards in the 
presence of honest little boys and pure little girls 
who may be unfortunate enough to pass that way, 
are becoming quite the rage. Why compel the poker 
players to hide, and allow progressive euchre to be 
played in the open, while both are under the con- 
demnation of the courts. The gamblers and drunk- 
ards of this country, are not made by the hard 
drinkers and poker players, but by the respectable 
(?) drinkers, and the refined (?) card players. 
More drunkards are on our streets and more gamb- 
lers infest our cities today as the fruit of our social 
life, than come from the saloon and the gambling 
dens. In a town in Ohio ten girls yet in their teens, 
went to the pastor of a popular church and said to 
him, "We will join your church if you will allow us 
to dance." No thought of repentance, no conscious- 
ness of sin, no desire to honor God, no seeking to 



THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 41 

be saved, no lifting of the life heavenward, no holy 
ambition to serve, no pure motive in worship, but 
a desire only, to add church membership as a side 
issue to the social function. Not long ago I saw 
crepe on the door of one of the high toned families 
of an American city, and many cabs with uniformed 
drivers, and a wagon for the floral offerings 
(display) standing in front of the splendid resi- 
dence. I said as I passed it, "Well, even death is 
made a social event, and the sorrow of broken, 
bleeding hearts are made occasions for parade and 
classification." 

Our social life is rapidly undermining the home, 
the state and the school. The snobbery of fashion, 
and the foolishness of pride have well nigh put the 
American home out of business, and kindred insti- 
tutions which have been the foundation stones in 
our civilization are threatened with a like fate. I 
often think of the old American days, when democ- 
racy, sincerity and patriotism were one; when 
liberty, independence and progress dwelt together, 
and when greed and pretentions were all but un- 
known. In those days there were no snobs in the 
sense in which we have them now and society 
everywhere was simple, democratic and natural. 

But think of it as it is to-day, especially as it 
is in our city life. While I speak there are tens 
of thousands of men and women going over the 
awful plunge of an impure life. Society is very 
severe upon the impurity that lurks around the al- 
leys and low haunts of the cities and towns. The 
law pursues it, smites it, incarcerates it, 
tries to destroy it, but where is the judge 



42 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 

or jury that dares to arraign the wealthy 
libertine? He walks the streets, he rides in the 
parks, he flaunts his iniquity in the face of the pure. 
The hag of uncleanness looks out of the tapestried 
window. Where is the law that dare to take these 
brazen wretches clothed as they are in the scarlet 
garments and put their faces in the window of the 
State's prison? Ever and anon there are reports 
in the newspapers that make the story of Sodom and 
Gomorrah quite respectable. It is no unusual thing 
in our large cities to see men in high positions, or 
ladies of supposed attainments willing solemnly to 
marry the very swine of society if only they be 
wealthy. The Bible is all aflame with denunciations 
against an impure life, but many of our American 
ministers utter not a word against this iniquity, 
lest some old libertine withdraw his support. Ma- 
chinery is organized in all our cities by which to 
put yearly in the grinding mill of this iniquity 
thousands of the unsuspecting girls of the country 
home and the city too, one procuress confessing not 
long ago, that she had supplied the infernal market 
with a hundred and fifty souls in six months. 
America is in a fair way to become one, foul, sticky, 
lazar house, of social impurity ! 

THE POWERLESSNESS OF THE CHURCH TO DEAL 
WITH THESE CONDITIONS. 

To confess that the church is powerless to deal 
with these conditions is humiliating, but true. Why 
cannot the church deal with the conditions? Be- 
cause the church is largely a factor in the condition, 
and because of the classes directly responsible for 



THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 43 

the conditions. The opposite classes — the million- 
aire and the laborer — are more directly responsible 
for the present conditions in American life than all 
others. Do they attend church? Not often. Do 
they sit in our pews? Do they sing in our choirs? 
Do they hear the Gospel? Are they brought under 
the helpful sanctifying influences of the songs and 
prayers of the sanctuary? Do they hear the dis- 
cussion of the great questions of the day from the 
standpoint of the Bible? Are they familiar with 
God's plan of settling difficulties and smoothing 
out the social wrinkles, and adjusting great na- 
tional questions? Have they learned the golden 
rule? Of the many rich and thousands of laborers, 
including mill men, factory men, railroad hands, 
miners, street-car men and others, how many attend 
our Sunday services? That a few of them do, I am 
glad to know, but the great majority of the very 
wealthy and the very poor are not under the influ- 
ence and blessing of church life; and especially is 
this true of the so called working men. 

Very few of the workingmen ever attend church 
service and many seem indifferent to the religious 
character of the community and the moral life of 
their homes. In speaking of the workingmen it is 
difficult to classify, for there is a sense in which most 
men are working men, they having regular hours 
of labor and receiving a stated sum for what they 
do. But in the thought of the hour, all, other than 
those who sit at desks, stand behind counters, teach 
a school, or do similar work are classified as working- 
men. One cause for the non-attendance of the 
workingmen upon divine service is evidently to be 



44 THE. Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 

found in the men themselves. Infidelity has laid 
its cold hand upon the heart of the people, and ag- 
nosticism has displaced the old-time faith of the 
heart. Materialism, greed and lust, have taken fast 
hold upon the life and deludes the mind into the 
belief that pleasure is preferable to virtue. Then 
the daily toilers are weary from the week's work. 
They want the Sunday for rest, for recreation, for 
reading, for home and their loved ones. The tastes 
of many lead them to select the illustrated 
Sunday newspaper and the social circle over the 
house of prayer and the influence of worship. 

Another cause is evidently found in the church. 
T wish to plainly and candidly state that it is my hon- 
est conviction that some of the causes are wholly im- 
aginary and others merely local, and often they 
are not alienations so much as pretexts for selfish 
reasons. Nevertheless the church has ground 
enough for self-examination and good reasons for 
such changes as will win the workingmen to its 
altars where wealth and aristocracy now largely 
dominate the membership. Laborers become shy 
and reserved beyond the touch and sympathy of the 
church. It has been said, and with great justifica- 
tion, too, that in the wealthy churches special efforts 
are made to secure members of means, while those 
in the humbler walks of life are neglected. One 
extremely aristocratic church can do more to make 
the impression that the church does not want the 
ones who heard Jesus "gladly" and for whom he 
died, than any dozen churches can do to teach men 
and women that God is no respecter of persons. 
Oftentimes in these wealthy churches the lectures 



THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 45 

supplant the sermon and the gospel. Men are hun- 
gering for the bread of life, for the Gospel of Jesus 
Christ, and the poor and laboring classes will hear 
Him as gladly to-day as they did in the days of His 
flesh. The workingmen claim, and not without 
cause, that the fashions and fads of the churches 
make them painfully conscious of the difference 
between themselves and their wealthy neighbors in 
the church, rendering them uncomfortable during 
the service. Often the sermon and the entire ser- 
vice fails to meet the needs of workingmen and they 
are led to believe that neither the pulpit nor pew 
understand nor care for their condition. With all 
this before us we can understand and appreciate 
the bitterness that finds a place in the minds of some 
of the workingmen of our country. But the church 
does care and does seek to remedy the evils, to 
elevate the laborer and to bring the gospel to his life 
and home, and if he could but realize the infinite 
greatness of the church, compared with the saloon, 
he would never again enter the latter, but attend 
the church with promptness and regularity. While 
it is the distinctive province of the ministry to 
preach the gospel of the Son of God, yet it is taking 
a deep interest in the condition of the masses, the 
cause of the laborer, the relation of classes and the 
equality of opportunity. Laborers are received with- 
out discrimination, and the working man is being 
welcomed with the heartiness given a millionaire. 
The one great need is to treat all men alike in God's 
house. 

It must indeed be offensive to the son of toil 
to be received anywhere with apparent condescen- 



46 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 

sion and a patronizing air. Workingmen should 
be received as should all others, as men simply. 
For that they ask, and to that they have a right. 
This indeed is the true basis of fellowship as set 
forth by the Apostle James in chapter 2, 1-9 : "My 
brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ 
the Lord of Glory, with respect to persons. For if 
there come unto your assembly a man with a gold 
ring, in goodly apparel, and there comes in also a poor 
man in vile raiment ; and ye have respect to him that 
weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit 
thou here in a good place, and say to the poor, Stand 
thou there or sit here under my footstool: Are 
ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become 
judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved 
brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this 
world rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which 
he hath promised to them that love him ? But ye have 
despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you 
and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not 
they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye 
are called? If ye fulfill the royal law according to 
the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self, ye do well : But if ye have respect to persons, 
ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as 
transgressors." 

AGAINST THESE CONDITIONS THE YOUNG PEOPLES' 
SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR STANDS 
GUARD. 

In the discussion of this proposition we must 
keep in mind three things, 



THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 47 

(1) That all permanent reforms have been 
begun and carried on by the church. 

(2) Permanent reforms are of slow growth. 
Slavery, that mightiest of social curses, was dis- 
cussed for more than one hundred years before it 
got a respectable hold in the thought and life of the 
nation. The great questions of the day have not 
been discussed long enough to have taken place in 
the mind and character of men sufficiently to move 
them to action. 

(3) Great evils are never corrected by the 
generations creating them. The generation entail- 
ing the curse of slavery upon the American people, 
was dead long before the curse was removed. Who 
corrected the evil of slavery? The descendants of 
those who created it. Will the saloon question and 
the liquor traffic be settled? Most certainly. By 
whom? By the children of those who have entailed 
the curse upon us. In the great day coming when 
the saloon shall no more curse, stab, ruin and devour 
our home, and curse our land and children, we shall 
know that the removal of such a crime was not by 
those committing it, but by those who suffered from 
it. In the midst of the unrest of the day the poli- 
tician comes to us with the promise of peace and 
prosperity, provided always that his party is the 
ruling power. He has a panacea for every ill, a balm 
for every wound. In his party is found the only 
remedy for the aches, and pains, and poverty, and 
sin, and suffering, of the day. But he is mistaken. 
His remedy has failed a thousand times, and will 
fail a thousand times more. There is no remedy 
but the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no panacea 



48 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 

but the life and love of the infinite God, and this 
the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor 
has realized and has turned to God with a faith and 
service which promises in the end to quiet the wa- 
ters, and pushing back the waves of confusion, and 
smoothing out the wrinkles and rough places, give 
to this nation a peace as deep as the sea. While 
the world is divided and subdivided, separating into 
classes and secularizing, and localizing itself, the 
unifying influences of the Young People's Society of 
Christian Endeavor goes steadily on, and some day 
we shall see the breaking down of the classification, 
the union of all the believers in Jesus Christ, and 
feel a harmony as sweet ais the song of angels. 

Nor has the social life of the world as at pres- 
ent defined, any place in the thought and character 
of this societv. It has not learned, nor does it care 
to learn, the ways of the world. It knows only 
Jesus Christ and him crucified, and while the social 
features of the society are well marked, and clearly 
defined, it is social to save, and not social for 
self. We are training in these societies a class of 
men and women who some day will have charge of 
the affairs of the world, and it is safe to say that 
they will be well qualified for their place and re- 
sponsibility and will give to the future life of the 
church and state, a dignity, free from pretensions, 
a life free from hypocrisy, and a service free from 
self. I do not claim that the Young People's So- 
ciety of Christian Endeavor is the only safe guard, 
but that it is one of the many through which God 
is working out the destiny and dignity of this 
nation. The young people are better educated than 



THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 49 

were their seniors. Our people are more generally 
educated than the masses of any country, and their 
education has not been purely secular either, so 
that the qualification to deal with great social and 
economic principles is well assured, and when the 
Young People shall come into power they will be 
prepared, as well as have the power to inaugurate 
changes that will destroy the sources of corruption, 
check the evil tendencies they find, and over-come 
class, rulership and plutocracy. What the church 
needs to do, and indeed must do, is to reach the 
masses. The masses once reached and the question 
of the moral character of the world is settled. The 
masses can be reached by the church through the 
young people more quickly and more efficiently, than 
through any other source at its command. This 
the church has not realized, but this the church 
must come to know. It must know more of the 
power and possibility of this strong right arm. 

I saw several years ago a picture in the Kam's 
Horn that very clearly illustrates the present con- 
dition of things. The general appearance of the 
picture impressed me as a Sabbath scene of about 
five o'clock in the afternoon. The glow of the set- 
ting sun hung like a beautiful curtain of gold sus- 
pended from the clouds. A large and beautiful grass 
plot formed the center of the scene. Throughout 
this were well planned walks and flower-beds of the 
most attractive designs. It was a most inviting 
place indeed. In addition to the flowers and walks, 
there were shade trees and beautiful lakes of clear 
water in which fountains gushed forth into clouds 
of silvery spray. At the entrance to this garden of 



50 THE Y. P. S. C. E. A NATIONAL SAFEGUARD 

beauty was a prominent sign "Keep off the Grass." 
Before this sign stood a burly policeman keeping 
guard. In one corner of the lot stood an elegant 
church house built of stone and adorned with all 
the art and skill of modern architecture. On the 
door of this building were the words, "Closed for 
Repairs." Forming a part of this building was a 
parsonage, on the door of which was this notice, 
"The Pastor has Gone on His Annual Three Months' 
Vacation." Just across the street was a saloon with 
the words prominently displayed, "Open Day and 
Night." In the door of the saloon stood the smiling, 
grinning, dirty saloonist, and with his hand was 
pointing the passers by to the sign above the door. 
Over against it all stood a young man who had just 
come to the city, and this was his first Sunday away 
from home and mother. He showed on his face 
the homesickness he felt in his heart. He had 
promised his mother that he would attend church, 
and perhaps that particular one. But it is closed, 
and the fashionable congregation and the popular 
preacher were at the sea shore. But just across on 
the opposite corner from the church, and directly 
across from the saloon, stood an old dilapidated 
house. There was a streamer across the door 
and on it was the announcement that attracted 
my attention. "The Y. P. S. C. E. Head- 
quarters for the Summer. Services at 6:30 p. m. 
Come In." I looked long and earnestly at the 
picture and especially at the boy, and wondered 
which of the two would get him, the Y. P. S. C. E. 
or the saloon. The getting of that boy settles 

THE QUESTION OP THE NATION'S SAFETY OR RUIN. 



THE WINNING SOCIETY. 

I was asked to speak upon the above topic, else 
this address had not been written. Words are sig- 
nificant things. They are suggestive, forceful 
things. Bad words are as influential as the plague, 
and as destructive as the pestilence. They have 
wrought more evil than battle, murder and sudden 
death. They creep through the ear into the 
heart, call up all the bad passions and set going all 
the unholy forces of the soul. Good words are as the 
bloom and fragrance of flowers, the voice of angels 
and the sweet perfume of heaven. 

The words of the topic suggest the following 
things : 

THAT THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD USE THE 
SAME DICTIONARY. 

There are words, distinctively, characteristicly, 
definitely, church words, and there are words which 
belong as definitely and distinctively to the world, 
and as such they have no place in the church vocabu- 
lary. Repentance, faith, hope, salvation and similar 
words, are children of the church. They belong to 
the church, and the world has no right to them, 
nor does it care to use them. But on the other hand 
the church is adopting the words of the world. The 
world has the winning horse, the winning candidate, 
the winning card, the wining team, etc., etc. That 
catches the ear of the church and it soon has the 
winning preacher, the winning society, the winning 



52 THE WINNING SOCIETY 

soloist, the winning choir, the winning everything 
except the winning of souls from sin to God. 

The word win does not always carry with it a 
righteous character, nor suggest righteous conduct. 
The word was coined by the world, belongs to the 
world and is in the thought of the world connected 
with loss and gain. It is said of "Sennacherib, King 
of Assyria," that "he came and entered into Judah, 
and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought 
to win them for himself." The word in this connec- 
tion has the element of cleaving, rending, rather 
than that more gentle persuasiveness that should 
characterize the Society of Christian Endeavor. 

When two horses enter the race course, if one 
wins the other must lose. It is in no such sense as 
this that I would speak of the Winning Society. 

THIS IDEA OF WINNING WOULD PUT SOCIETIES IN 
THE FIELD FOR NUMBERS ONLY. 

While there is a sense in which we are justified 
in seeking to add numbers, yet the work of the 
Society should be to win the young people to the 
gospel, and to develop their characters into the like- 
ness and life of Jesus Christ. It is not quantity, 
but quality that counts in the moral world. The 
Jews were anxious for numbers. They considered 
numbers as the one important thing. John, the 
Baptist told them that "God was able of the stones 
to raise up children unto Abraham." If numbers 
were the important thing, God could multiply his 
family by making children out of stones. Oh, you 
say we must add numbers. Of course we must, but 



THE WINNING SOCIETY 53 

we must not make numbers the principal thing. It 
often times occurs that in our efforts to add num- 
bers we fail to win the soul and entirely overlook 
its salvation from sin which is in the thought of God 
the principal and supremely important thing. 

The oft repeated words of Solomon, "He that 
winneth souls is wise" has always been misinter- 
preted and misapplied. The revised version gives us 
more accurately Solomon's thought, and the exact 
truth as proven by the experience of men, 

"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; 
And he that is wise winneth souls." 

is the way the revisers give it to us. The wise man 
makes it his business to win souls. He does not 
catch them ; he does not resort to tricks and schemes 
and by the turning of the whirly-gig of a revivalistic 
gymnastic, turn them all into the hopper and start 
the mill grinding; he wins them. It is supposed 
that a man is wise because he wins souls. That is 
not the teaching of the text. He wins souls because 
he is wise. The Rev. Joseph Parker than whom there 
has been none with a clearer insight to God's 
thought, says : 'Wisdom alw ays wins. The wise man 
may never speak to a soul, and yet he may win it. 
This is not the picture of an ardent evangelist run- 
ning to and fro in the earth upon the vague and 
general mission of winning souls, which is the popu- 
lar misunderstanding of the verse. The real inter- 
pretation is that if a man is wise he will by the very 
necessity of wisdom win souls, draw them to him, ex- 
cite their attention, compel their confidence, con- 



54 THE WINNING SOCIETY 

strain their honor. There is a silent conquest ; there 
is a preaching that never speaks, — a most eloquent 
preaching which simply does the law, obeys the gos- 
pel, exemplifies the spirit of Christ, works the spirit 
out in all the details of life, so swiftly, patiently, 
sympathetically, completely, that souls are won, 
drawn, saying, Behold, what virtue is this? what 
pureness, what charity, what simplicity, what real 
goodness and beneficence! This must be the right 
doctrine because it comes out in the right line. So 
then the scope of the text is enlarged. He who would 
found upon these words an address to evangelists 
might deliver a very excellent speech, but he would 
miss the principal point of the text which he had 
chosen as his starting basis. The text makes all men 
preachers, by the necessity of their being wise. The 
sun never speaks, yet he draws all men who could 
walk out of the house. He does not come with a 
strong hand, smiting the door, or ringing the bell, 
and saying with sonorous voice, You must and shall 
come out. The sun simply shines, silvers the win- 
dows, seeks out all accessible corners, floods the house 
with glory, so that even cripples begin to feel they 
must sit outside, at least; they would gladly walk 
and leap and praise God in the open meadows, but 
being deprived of this high festival of thanksgiving 
they must seek a warm corner just outside, and 
thank God for the ministry of light. It is precisely 
so with the wise man. He does not know what good 
he is doing. He gives away his whole life, and yet is 
almost unconscious of so doing. Men look at him, 
estimate his influence, study his motives, observe 
with what wonderous precision the whole mechan- 



THE WINNING SOCIETY 55 

ism of his life works, and how all his thinking comes 
to solid and beneficient conclusions, and they say, 
So long as that man lives we cannot laugh at his 
faith: he is a living argument; he never speaks a 
word upon subjects of a metaphysical or even a 
religious kind, and yet his whole life is religious. 
He is like the concealed Christ; he is mistaken for 
the gardener, and yet the mistake is self -convicting, 
for they who affect to mistake him feel in their 
innermost souls that there is about him a royalty 
which commen men cannot honestly claim. Thus 
we have only to be wise in order to win souls. The 
fool wins nobody ; the buffoon is no preacher either 
by tongue or example; but the solid character, 
the wise head, the discerning eye, the judgment that 
is well based, and that goes straight upward, heaven- 
ward, will in the long run secure attention, confi- 
dence and honor." 

Our efforts to secure numbers and get crowds 
have led us into doing many ridiculous things. I 
was told in the early years of my ministry of and old 
minister who had for many years been pastor of the 
same church. Under his faithful preaching the 
church had steadily grown, its influence and useful- 
ness constantly widening and its spiritual life per- 
petually deepening. But his audiences were small 
and there never was much enthusiasm. Things went 
on about the same the year round. With him one 
day was the same as another, and yet the blessing 
of heaven was upon his work and his membership 
was one of power. It came to pass that an evangelist 
came that way. An up to date evangelist. One of 
the latest editions, and of the most approved 



56 THE WINNING SOCIETY 

methods of making converts, and as I once heard a 
man say of my old friend the Rev. C. W. Garoutte, 
"he could convert more people in an hour than any 
other man living." He voted his audience, he used 
cards, he fell down, he stood up, he made fun of the 
dear old souls who could not be quick enough to 
please his fancy, he criticized the preachers, he 
abused the church, he wept and prayed, and sung 
and preached, as no other man ever had done, or 
ever could do, and the people went wild in their 
enthusiasm. They crowded the church, they did his 
bidding and the evangelistic machinery had not been 
running long until a great grist of converts had 
been ground out ready for use. But the old pastor 
seemed undisturbed. He attended the metings when 
he could, he prayed for blessing and for power, but 
on his regular service days but few came out to hear 
him. Something must be done said the officers of 
the church. We are losing our congregation; we 
are losing our prestige; we are losing our young 
people and we must do something to change the 
tide. They went to their pastor and told him what 
was in their hearts. "Yes," said he, "I know what 
you say is true, and if we get a crowd we must do 
something." They were delighted to hear their pas- 
tor speak thus. They were in a frenzy of excitement 
and expectation and expressed their thanks and ap- 
preciation most profusely indeed. But what should 
be done? "Well," they said, "we will leave that all 
to you." It is a full house we want is it" said he. 
"Yes," they replied. "Well, you have it announced 
that on next Sunday evening at the close of the 
service the pastor will pronounce the benediction 



THE WINNING SOCIETY 57 

standing on his head." The church officers took the 
hint and were wise enough to act upon it, and long 
after the hum of the great revival had died away 
the wise old pastor and his devoted people were 
winning souls to God. 

THE WINNING SOCIETY. 

If souls are saved, souls must be won, and in 
this good sense of the word, I am glad that we have 
"Winning Societies." Souls cannot be driven. We 
may attempt to drive them but we shall fail, for it 
is the nature of the soul to be charmed, lured by 
beauty and convinced by reason. The soul can defy 
the driver. The body can be driven to church, but 
the soul cannot be compelled to worship. It by no 
means proves that because a man is sitting in 
church, that he himself is there. A child forced to 
Sunday-school does not attend. The house of the 
Lord should be filled with attractions, fascinations, 
charms, so that all who attend once will want to 
return. Men cannot be driven to observe the Sab- 
bath, as the violated Blue Laws of Connecticut tes- 
tify. Indeed men cannot be forced or driven to ac- 
cept any virtue. They may be prevented from the 
overt act of crime, but at that point our force is 
at an end. Christianity is one strong persuasive 
appeal to the souls of men. Think of Satan coming 
to Eve and saying to her, "You must eat this 
apple." Do you think she would have done it? 
Those of us who are married know very well that 
she would not. She would have been fighting 
him yet, 



58 THE WINNING SOCIETY 

"For when a woman will, she will 
And you can depend 'on it, 
But when she won't, she won't, 
And there's the end 'on it." 

But by persuasion he succeeded in winning her to 
his way of thinking, and Eve is not the only woman 
that has been so won. 

Here is a boy who starts out fresh and pure 
from a good Christian home. His heart is light and 
he is bouyant and hopeful. Fresh on his sweet, 
young lips is the kiss of love imprinted by his dear 
old mother. Here stands the saloon keeper who tells 
him that he must become vile, corrupt, debauched, 
and that bleared and bloated, he must reel out into 
the streets and become a common sot, despised and 
loathed by all good people. Do you think that he 
could ever get that boy to take a drink if he could 
make him believe that? You know he could not. 
The boy knows it and the saloon keeper knows it too. 
Before that boy would start out on a career that 
promised such an ending, he would fight to his death. 
But with smiles and promises, and deception, lying, 
and persuasion, the boy is drawn little by little, 
into the net and at last is securely held. We all 
know that it would be hard to take a castle by seige 
or with the open and avowed purpose of battering 
down the wall and entering in, but if there be an 
enemy within and he opens the gates, then the army 
may march in and take posession. The young man, 
when he first goes into dissipation is very particular 
where and how he goes. It must be a respectable 
place, a fashionable hotel, or the parlor of one of 



THE WINNING SOCIETY 59 

the "First Families." No corner nuisance with its 
red stained glass and its mug of beer painted on 
the sign board, for him. No it must be a marble- 
floored bar room. There must not be any lustful 
pictures behind the counter; there must not be any 
hic-coughing drunken sots around where he drinks. 
It must be a place where elegant and refined gentle- 
men congregate for a social hour, and in the purest 
friendship click their glasses. He does not at first 
see the cellar where he will finally sit around a card 
table with wheezing bloated drunkards, playing with 
a deck so greasy that the spots can hardly be dis- 
tinguished. Could all that be seen from the begin- 
ning no young man would ever enter a saloon. But 
that is the trouble, they are deceived and won to 
a life of sin through their blindness. There are a 
great many who try to make our young men, believe 
that it is a sign of weakness to be pure. The man 
will toss his head and in a dramatic attitude tell of 
his own indiscretions. They will call the young man 
verdant and ask him how he can stand to be tied to 
his mother's apron string. They tell him he ought 
to break away from such a straight- jacket life and 
see something of the world. They promise to show 
him the town and tell him that it won't hurt him. 
After a while the young man feels that he cannot 
afford to be odd, nor does he want to lose these 
friends and so he goes. From that moment the 
grade is downward, and he goes rapidly and from 
the gates of hell there arises a shout of victory. 
Farewell to all innocence, to all careful training, to 
all moral restraints and clear the tract for the 
awful plunge of another soul into the bottomless 



60 THE WINNING SOCIETY 

pit, for he has been won from the path of virtue to 
that of vice. If only the church were as energetic, 
determined, and as wise in its efforts to win the 
young to Christ, as the world is to win them away 
from Him, there would be sweeter songs on earth 
and more joy in heaven. Jesus Christ has filled the 
gospel, the home, and the church, with that one 
sweet word "Come." It is the gentleness of per- 
suasion. 

A Winning Society is One That Exalts Jesus 
Christ. 

Here is the fundamental factor in winning souls. 
Jesus says "And I, if I be lifted up will draw all men 
unto me." There is a winning power about Jesus 
Christ that is irresistible, and when he is lifted up 
he will draw all men unto himself. I have been in 
societies where they exalted Emerson, lifted up 
Scott, Browning, Whittier, Hawthorne, Dickens and 
many others, while Jesus Christ was barely men- 
tioned, if mentioned at all. Such societies are not 
winning societies, nor have they learned the first 
principle of winning. I was in a meeting of this 
kind once in my life where I was reminded of the 
utterance of an old soldier during one of the revival 
meetings of my early ministry. He arose to speak 
and all eyes were turned toward him, for all knew 
him to be a good man, though quite excitable. He 
said, "I believe in the United States, the Fourth of 
July, and some in the Lord Jesus Christ." From the 
services of these societies wherein all manner of men 
are exalted, but the Son of Man, one is lead to think 
that they only believe "some" in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. I know that the lifting up primarily means 



THE WINNING SOCIETY 61 

his death on the cross, but he must be lifted up in 
our minds, our hearts, our services, our lives and 
before the people, or he is not lifted up to the saving 
of souls. There is no power so attractive as Christ 
crucified, and when in our services we make this 
truth prominent and thus lift him up he draws and 
wins as no other force can. 

.The Winning Society is One That is Filled With 
the Holy Ghost. 

"My, Me, what an old fogy he is" exclaimed a 
lady on hearing me announce the above when giving 
this address not long ago. Yes my friends, I may 
be a back number, wholly out of line with the mod- 
ern thought, but nevertheless it remains true that 
the one great need of the Young People's Society 
of Christian Endeavor is the infilling of the Holy 
Ghost. When Namaan went to Elijah for healing 
and Elijah told him to go and dip seven times in 
the river Jordan, Namaan thought that he had 
struck an old time doctor. But it was the very thing 
he needed. So if I seem to you to be out of date and 
awav back in mv methods of thought and conclu- 
sions, I comfort myself that I am in good company, 
for from the time of Elijah until now, the man who 
most needed help, did not know what he needed. 
Our Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor 
really needs the infilling of the Holy Ghost, and if 
they are to be soul winners they must have it. Two 
country boys stood on the platform of a great rail- 
road station, and for the first time in their lives saw 
an engine. They looked at it carefully and scrutin- 
ized it with great earnestness. They had never seen 
anything so wonderful. All at once it began to 



62 THE WINNING SOCIETY 

breathe through its iron lungs, and stretch out its 
great long arms, and with a screech and a scream 
it walked up the track. The boys saw it go, and for a 
while were greatly amazed. But one boy soon saw 
the secret of its power and nudging his brother, said, 
"Jim, it's what's in her that makes her go." Let 
me tell you, that it is what a society has in it that 
makes it go. You may have all the external ap- 
plinaces, but if you have not the indwelling spirit to 
inspire, direct and draw, you have nothing worth 
your having. 

"Tell me," said a father to his son, "what differ- 
ence you can detect between two needles, — one of 
which has received an electric shock, whilst the other 
has not. And yet the one has hidden virtues, which 
occasion will show, of which the other has none. 
The electric shock has rendered the one needle a 
magnet, which, duly balanced, will enable man to 
find his way across the trackless ocean. As this 
needle, so may that soul be which has received the 
electric shock of the Holy Ghost; on the ocean of a 
sinful world, it shall point wanderers to the haven 
of everlasting rest." And what is true of the indi- 
vidual soul may be true of the Christian Endeavor 
Society as a whole. 

A Winning Society is One That Enters the Con- 
quest for Souls and Each Individual Member Does 
Personal Work. 

The mightiest conflict of the ages is waged over 
human souls. I see Peter standing before Christ in 
that upper room on the night of Christ's betrayal. 
He seems the very embodiment of manhood, strength 
and usefulness. How stalwart he is. How strong 



THE WINNING SOCIETY 63 

in spirit and purpose. Truly it may be said "Thou 
hast made him but little lower than God." He has 
heard no unusual sound, and seen no unusual sights. 
But all day long the unseen forces of evil have been 
gathering, and the tramp and tread of the might J 
army of wrong had been heard in the soul of Jesus 
Christ, and the forces of right and wrong were soon 
to wage a mighty conflict over the soul of Peter. 
Jesus, said, "Peter, I have prayed for you." I shall 
enter the conflict for you. You are worth saving, 
and for you I shall contend. What a momentous 
event it was in the life of Peter, and what a momen- 
tous event it is in the life of all others over whom 
good and evil contends. I have seen a horse put 
on the market to be sold to the highest bidder. What 
a fine sleek animal he is. Long mane, and tail, 
flashing eye, agile limb, fleet of foot, power to endure, 
gentle in disposition, willing to work; he stands 
there the best of his specie. The bidding begins r 
slowly and indifferently at the first, but more spir- 
ited as the sale proceeds. Soon the bidding is 
limited to two men. One a gentleman, who, if he 
gets the horse, will be careful for his comfort, will 
be kind to him, provide him food, and shelter, and 
never overwork or mistreat him. The other bidder 
is a coarse, brutal man, who, if he gets the horse, 
will overwork him, underfeed him, and roughly 
handle him. One owner would undertake to make 
him the best of his kind, the other the worst. If 
that horse could know what it meant to him to be 
owned by one or the other of the bidders, it would 
be the most momentous event of his life. Over every 
soul such a bidding is going on ; and the soul is con- 



64 THE WINNING SOCIETY 

scious of it, and more, unlike the powerless horse 
the soul has a right to choose its master, and still 
more, he not only has the right to choose his master, 
but he is compelled to make the choice. I can 
imagine myself a slave. Here is the auction block, 
and here the bidders. Some of them are kindly dis- 
posed toward me ; and others frown upon me and re- 
veal only their debased and cruel hearts. The auc- 
tioneer describes my qualities, tells of my strength 
and skill, and the bidding begins. Two men at once 
start the bidding. One of them I know to be a gen- 
erous, good man, who will, if he gets me, develop my 
life into the beauty and strength of his own, will 
give me good food and clothe me with comfortable 
garments, and while he will require good and faith- 
ful service at my hands, will not demand of me any 
unreasonable thing, and at last will give me a home 
in which to spend all my years. The other is coarse, 
cruel, and crafty, cold, base, and degraded, and will 
drag me down to his level of life and living. How 
my hopes rise and fall. How I turn from one bidder 
to the other. To the one I look appealingly and to 
the other with fear and disgust. During the bid- 
ding a friend of mine who knows the good man goes 
to him and pleads with him to continue his bids. 
He remains with him, and continues his efforts in 
my behalf. At last the bidding ceases, the ordeal 
is over, and my master is the good and generous 
man, whose every word and deed will be to me a 
blessing. Think you, that I could ever forget that 
friend who interceded in my behalf? Such a scene 
occurs every day. The bidders are Christ and Satan, 
the slave is the soul, and the friend is the Young 



THE WINNING SOCIETY 65 

People's Society of Christian Endeavor. 

Now the Society that will win must not 
only enter the conquest for souls as a so- 
ciety, but each individual member must go, 
and go too, as a Saviour of men. Mr. W. T. 
Stead, of London, sets this forth very clearly 
in a remarkable incident which he relates concern- 
ing his Christmas in 1885. It was at the time when 
he was carrying on that memorable fight for social 
purity in England, which attracted the attention of 
the whole civilized world and worked with great 
force for righteousness, though the heroic worker 
was at that time in jail, suffering imprisonment 
brought about by the machinations of the titled 
criminals he had sought to unearth. On that Christ- 
mas afternoon Mr. Stead says that he had been 
writing a letter to a poor girl who had been strug- 
gling, against great temptation, to regain a better 
life. Although it was a better life, it was for the 
time being, much duller, and the poor girl was sorely 
tempted to go back to the old license. Some of Mr. 
Stead's friends, who knew her, suggested that he 
might help her failing resolution if he wrote to her 
from the jail. He had begun the letter and was try- 
ing his best to say what he thought would help her, 
when there came to him as if it were a voice, which 
said with great emphasis, "Why are you asking that 
girl to be a Christian? Never say to any one any 
more 'Be a Christian/ always say 'Be a Christ.' " 

He meditated somewhat, wondering and mar- 
veling not a little at the apparent blasphemy of the 
exhortation; but again the impression came to his 
mind with all the clearness of a speaking voice : "Do 



66 THE WINNING SOCIETY 

■ i ■ 

not say be a Christian ever any more, for a Chris- 
tian has come to be a mere label, but say to every 
one, 'Be a Christ.' " 

Until we get a like passion for souls, we will 
call out to God, and heaven, will mock us. A ship's 
surgeon told this story to a member of the New York 
Presbytery : "On our last trip a boy fell overboard 
from the deck. I didn't know who he was, and told 
the crew they had better go out and try to save the 
boy. One of the crew pulled him up. He took off 
his outer garments, turned him over a few times, 
worked his hands and feet, and when they had done 
all they knew how to do they said, 'Haven't we done 
all we can?' 'Yes,' I said, 'I think you have.' A 
sudden impulse told me I ought to go over and see 
what I could do. I went over, and found it was my 
own son. Well, you may believe, I didn't think the 
last thing had been done. I pulled off my coat. I 
bent over that boy, blew into his nostrils and 
breathed into his mouth. I turned him over, and 
simply begged God to bring him back, and for four 
long hours I worked, until just at sunset I began 
to see the least flutter of breath that told me he 
lived. Oh, I will never see another boy drown with- 
out taking off my coat in the first instance and 
going to him and trying to save him as if I knew he 
were my own boy." And, oh, my friends, when you 
and I realize that these men and women around us 
will be lost unless we turn in and personally do 
what we can to save them, then, and not until then, 
shall we have the requisite passion for souls, and 
until we have that requisite passion for souls can we 
be winning societies. Have you any idea how many 



THE WINNING SOCIETY 67 

there are in our churches, in the Christian En- 
deavor Societies, to say nothing of our homes, and 
about our social circles, who are out of Christ, and 
to whom we have never spoken a single word on 
the subject of religion? 

The Eev. John Balcom Shaw, D. D., has this 
to say about pfersonal work, and in it is the experi- 
ence of many another who wanted to do, but waited 
until it was too late. "If ever I had this pressed in 
upon my heart it was two summers ago when I was 
in the mountains. Old Harvey, my old Adirondack 
driver, who had taken me all over the mountains, I 
knew was not a Christian. I had talked with him 
about his soul, but I had never done real hand to 
hand, heart to heart work with hira. One day we 
were driving and I felt that I must speak to him. 
Finally, I said to him, 'Harvey, I am going to preach 
next Sunday in the Valley church, won't you come 
and hear me?' 'Well/ he replied, 'if you put it that 
way, I will.' The very next morning my neighbor, 
Dr. Mac Intosh, who summered in the mountains, 
came to me and said, 'Did you know that Old Har- 
vey is very ill, and they don't think he is going to 
live?' I went down that day. They said, 'You 
can't go in; we are very sorry, but you can't, he is 
too ill.' I went the next day and he was worse, and 
of course, they wouldn't let me in. I went the next 
day, and the little granddaughter came out crying as 
if her heart would break and said. 'Oh, my grand- 
father has just died.' The Sunday came and I went 
and preached in the little mountain church. The 
church was full, but I am sure I didn't see anybody. 
My mind ran down the road to where old Harvey 



68 THE WINNING SOCIETY 

lay cold in death. At the funeral I could not pray 
nor talk. I said to another, 'You had better do 
that; you have known him longer; I will just read 
the Scriptures.' And as I looked into the strong, 
rugged face of the old mountaineer, it soon van- 
ished from sight. Nor could I see the plate on the 
casket. I saw an inscription there, as if written by 
a Divine hand, which read, 'A lost opportunity.' 
And I believed then, as I believe to-night, and shall 
always believe, that it was more of a lost oppor- 
tunity to me, than it was even to old Harvey. There 
are men and women dying near each one of us, in 
our homes, in our churches, in our social circles, in 
our business offices, and in every case, believe me 
it is a lost opportunity.' 

The winning society is one that has been won. 
Is in harmony with the pastor and co-operates with 
him in every good word and work. Is in accord with 
the church, is in touch with men, in the fellowship 
of the saints and communion with God. One that 
keeps itself pure, loves God and seeks His glory. 
One that maintains a goodly character, an upright 
life and a loving spirit. One that is pure in thought, 
circumspect in conduct and faithful in service. One 
that seeks the good of mankind, the growth of the 
church, and the success of the Sunday-school. One 
that looks after the physical, social, intellectual, and 
spiritual welfare of its members. One that is lib- 
eral in gifts, generous in thought and loving in 
heart. One that is interested in missions, educated 
in music and inspiring in worship. One that fears 
God, keeps his commandments and follows his 
precepts. One that exalts Christ, is filled with 



THE WINNING SOCIETY 69 

the Holy Ghost and does personal work. 
One that visits the sick, relieves the dis- 
tressed and comforts the sorrowing. One that 
sends flowers to the afflicted, bread to the poor and 
clothes to the needy. One that follows the Master 
in going about doing good, scattering sunshine and 
gladness where it otherwise could not come. One 
who does all it does for the sake of the Master, in 
whose name and for whose glory it lives. In a word 
a winning society is one 

"That lives for those who love it; 
The good, the brave, the true, 
For the heaven that smiles above it 
And the good that it can do." 



THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER. 

The one supremely important thing, is right 
relations. In the absence of right relations there 
can be no success in any sphere of human life. 
Steam, that mightiest of physical forces, that which 
propels our steamers, drives our engines, and turns 
the wheels of our factories, is said to be the product 
of fire and water. No, it is not the product of fire 
and water, but the product of fire and water prop- 
erly related. You may have an ocean of water, and 
a volcano of fire, but unless they are properly related 
you will not have an ounce of steam. But put fire 
and water in proper relationship and you will pro- 
duce a power which will be well nigh irresistible. 

Our crops, without which all life would perish, 
is said to be the product of seed, soil, and sunshine. 
No, they are the product of seed, soil and sunshine 
properly related. You may have all the fields of the 
world with their producing power multiplied a thous- 
and times, and all the seed of the world in the most 
perfect order, but unless you have them properly 
related you will have no crops. Take the most 
perfect seed, and the most productive soil, and keep 
them apart and you will have no result. But put the 
seed in the soil, cover it up, hide it away from the 
sunshine, let the rain fall upon it, let the dews moist- 
en it, let the darkness envelop it, let the light of day 
wake it up, and when it peeps above the ground let 
the sunlight kiss it, and soon you will have food for 
man and beast. Here is a fort we wish to batter 



72 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 

down. Well, here is a cannon, with which to do it. 
Why, that cannon is a harmless thing. A child may 
play upon it with perfect safety, a bird may build 
its nest in the mouth of it and rear her young with- 
out disturbance. Yes, but see this powder. Yes, I 
know that powder is a mighty force, and its ex 
plosive power is great, but a little child may fill 
its hand and let the tiny grains sift through its 
fingers without harm ; the gentlest wind of the even- 
ing may blow it away. Yes, but don't you see this 
ball. Yes, I see that ball, but what power is there 
in that ball? If a hundred men were to take it and 
with their united strength hurl it against the fort, 
it would rebound without even making an impres- 
sion. But you take that harmless powder, and that 
harmless cannon, and that harmless ball, and put 
them into proper relationship with each other, and 
touch a spark to the powder, and there will be a 
flash like the flame of hell, a roar like the falling of 
worlds, and a power that will break through the 
strongest barricade of the fort. No, that flash and 
crash were not the result of the cannon, the ball, and 
the powder, but the result of these things properly 
related. What a force a Christian is; what a force 
in the home, the church, and the state, to say noth 
ing of his influence in politics and society. We 
think of him as the product of the human and the 
divine. No, he is not the product of the human and 
the Divine, but the product of the human and the 
Divine properly related. It is not until the Holy 
Spirit comes into the soul of a man that he is trans- 
formed into the likeness of God's dear Son. Who 
is a Christian? The answer is given by Paul in a 



THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 73 

negative form when he says : "If any man has not 
the spirit of Christ he is none of his." Therefore 
if any man has the spirit of Christ, he is Christ's. 
Many men have open and pronounced preference 
for the doctrines of Christ. They are theoretically 
orthodox men ; they hate men who differ from them ; 
if they do not hate them, they linger about the point 
of prejudice with a very strong inclination toward 
hate. There are men who would not for the whole 
world multiplied by ten, be Uuitarians, nor Uni- 
versalists, nor Methodists, nor Baptists, nor Pres- 
byterians, nor Friends, nor Disciples of Christ, but 
they can be many things which are peculiar and 
oftentimes offensive, and sometimes hurt the heart 
of Jesus Christ whom they have crowned, in words, 
and crucified in deeds, whom they worship in atti- 
tude and betray in action. But I did not start out 
to say that, but to say that the Christian who honors 
God and exemplifies the life of His Son, Jesus 
Christ is one in whom the Spirit of the Most High 
dwelleth, and thus by the union of the human and 
the Divine, or properly relating the two, one helpless 
and weak, and the other omnipotently strong, you 
have the world's greatest benefactor — A Christian. 

THE IN-RIGHT. 

Man must be properly related to himself, and 
he is only properly related to himself when he is 
properly related to God. The man who is out of har- 
mony with God, is not in proper accord with him- 
self, nor any of the relationships of life; and as a 
result there can be nothing but jangling discordant 



74 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 

notes, and unharmonious deeds. Look at man, 
lying, stealing, drunken, selfish, poluted, debauched ; 
plotting, scheming, cruel man ; foolish vain, 
babbling man; prodigal, bigoted deceitful man; 
wandering in wilderness in search of the impossible, 
sneaking in forbidden places with the crouch and 
purpose of a criminal, washing his hands in human 
blood; man, leering, gibing, mocking; a painted 
mask, a thing we call a man, and yet destitute, for- 
saken, ostracized, and left alone in his sins. What 
is the matter with him ? He is out of harmony with 
his God, and consequently out of harmony with him- 
self and every thing else with which he has to do. 
See how cunning and cold selfishness predominate 
in his life. See how mean, and low motives have 
supplanted the nobler virtues, and how coarse gruff- 
ness, has taken the music out of his voice. See the 
body! It is misshapen, defiled and degraded, while 
red specks of corruption make the skin loathsome 
and the whole body totters under the leprosy of 
disease and the visible companionship of death. 
Why all this? Is this the man that God made in 
His own image? Oh, no! This is the man that is 
out of harmony with God, and out of right relation- 
ship with himself. When Adam was in right re- 
lationship with himself, God walked and talked with 
him in the garden as friend talketh with friend, and 
the scent of roses and the fragrance of the new born 
flowers were not sweeter than their companionship; 
but when Adam sinned and went astray, God sim- 
ply drove him out of the garden and away from his 
presence. The one supreme duty of man is to get 
back into harmony with God and right relationship 



THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 75 

with himself. But even man at his best, if unre- 
deemed is not properly related to God nor himself, 
and you will find the discord and discover the 
lack of harmony, and oftentimes I have thought that 
between what the world would call a nice man and 
God, there w r as a greater difference than God saw 
between what the world would call a nice man and 
outcast. The one supreme folly of this age is the 
idea that the external life may be right while the 
heart is wrong. Man is what he is on the inside. 
The man is within the man. There is a vast amount 
of talk — the merest twaddle and silliest prating — 
about what we ought to do. The one supremely 
important thing is what we ought to be. We ought 
to be right at heart. A watch is so constructed that 
it will conform to the rotations of the earth and on 
its dial mark the course of the sun as it pursues its 
trackless way across the heavens. I have one. It 
stops running, or if it runs at all is unreliable and 
apt to lead me astray. Would it do any good for 
me to take the point of my knife blade and move 
the hands to the right time as indicated by the regu- 
lator? You know it would not, for the hands would 
soon be as far wrong as ever. Would it do any good 
for me to take it to the watch maker and have a new 
case made for it ? You know that would not do any 
more good than to move the hands. Well suppose 
that I had some new and better jewels put in it. 
Will that answer? Let us ask the watch maker. 
He examines it and quickly says : "Your watch must 
have a new main spring." You might have a case 
of gold, and jewels of the purest diamond, but with- 
out a main spring your watch could never be made to 



76 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 

keep time. There are a great many of us who have 
good enough cases, and some few have jewels, but 
unless the heart is right there is really nothing right 
about us. I once heard a story of an old man who 
with a tin cup was busy dipping the water out of the 
spring branch, when his boy came along and said, 
"Dad, what are you doing?" "I am trying to dip the 
mud out of the spring branch," was the reply. 
"Well," said the boy, "you had better go and drive 
that old hog out of the spring." That spring branch 
would never run clear with an old hog in the spring 
stirring up the mud. And let me tell you young 
people your external life will never be right as long 
as there is wrong in the heart. This is the one thing 
about which Jesus Christ himself was most anxious 
— The Rightness of the Heart. He knew that if the 
heart was right, the whole out-going of the life 
would be right, but if the heart were wrong then all 
the actions that make up the sum total of human 
duties and energies would be wrong. In speaking 
of the necessity of a pure heart Henry Ward Beecher 
had this to say : 

"The Divine nature can only be made known 
to us through part of our nature which is like His. 
You cannot imitate silence by making a noise. You 
cannot make a man have sweet tastes by giving him 
sour or bitter. You cannot take an opaque stone, 
and with it illustrate the transparency of glass or 
a diamond. You cannot by darkness imitate light. 
You must have the quality itself that you wish to 
make known. If that which in God is so precious 
were a material thing, then it might be made known 
to us through material organizations; but as God 



THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 77 

is infinite in love, and beauty, and wisdom, and 
glory, and excellence, He is to be known to us in 
these elements by the actual possession of the 
qualities themselves, as windows through which the 
light of heaven shines. The windows in us are to be 
like the heavenly windows; and the knowledge that 
comes to us is to be brought out from the very chords 
which are in our bosom, and which vibrate in us." 

THE OUT-RIGHT. 

The Out Right Endeavorer is one that is prop- 
erly related to things outside himself. There is a 
great outlying world with which man has to do and 
deal. We must come in contact with things outside 
ourselves, and we must be properly related to them, 
or our touch will curse them and harm us. The 
child in school is related to books and papers, maps, 
teachers, recitations, schoolmates, all of which are 
outside the child, and each of them has for him a 
blessing or a curse, as has he for them ; the blessing 
or the curse being determined by the attitude of the 
child to that with which he comes in contact. 

All things have a double possibility — of blessing 
or of hurt. Everything we lay hold of has two 
handles, and it depends upon ourselves which handle 
we grasp and whether we shall get a shock that 
slays, or strength and blessing from the contact. 
This truth is clearly demonstrated in the history of 
the Ark in the homes of its enemies and friends. 

Nearly seventy years had elapsed since the cap- 
ture of the Ark by the Philistines on the fatal field 
of Aphek. They had carried it and set it in 



78 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 

insolent triumph in the Temple of Dagon, as if to 
proclaim that the Jehovah of Israel was the con- 
quered prisoner of the Philistine god. But the 
morning showed Dagon's stump prone on the 
threshold. And so the terrified priests got rid of 
their dangerous trophy as swiftly as they could. 
From Philistine city to city it passed, and every- 
where its presence was marked by disease and ca- 
lamity. So at last they huddled it into some rude 
cart, leaving the draft-oxen to drag it whither they 
would. They made straight for the Judean hills, 
and in the first little village were welcomed by the 
inhabitants at their harvest as they saw them com- 
ing across the plain. But again death attended the 
presence, and curiosity, which was profanity, was 
punished. So the villagers were as eager to get 
rid of the Ark as they had been to welcome it, and 
they passed it on to the little city of Kirjath-jearim, 
"the city of the woods," as the name means. And 
there it lay, neglected and all but forgotten, for 
nearly seventy years. But as soon as David was 
established in his newly-won capitol he set himself 
to reorganize the national worship, which had fallen 
into neglect and almost into disuse. The first step 
was to bring the Ark. And so he passed with a 
joyful company to Kirjath-jearim. But again swift 
death overtook Uzzah who with irreverent hand 
undertook to steady the rocking cart and David 
shrinks, in the consciousness of his impurity, and 
bestows the symbol of the awful Presence in the 
house of Obed-Edom. Obed-Edom was not afraid 
to receive the Ark. There were no idols, no irrever- 
ent curiosity, no rash presumption in his house. He 



THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 79 

feared and served the God of the Ark, and so the 
Presence, which had been a source of disaster to 
the unworthy, was a source of unbroken blessing 
to him and to his household. Even so it is with 
all things with which we have to do. 

What our Out-Right life is, depends upon the 
character of the In-Right Life, for the outer is but 
the expression of the inner. When Jesus said, "A 
tree is known by its fruit," he told a truth the half 
of which has not yet been grasped. He certainly 
meant that the inside of a tree gets out where it can 
be seen and known. When I was a boy, I had a beau- 
tiful idea of fruit, and I have often regretted that 
the truth of fruit bearing compelled me to give it up. 
Man as I am, and though having long since learned 
better, I yet love to think of the way I then thought 
fruit was produced. I thought that in the night 
time when all men were asleep and there was perfect 
peace and quiet, angels came and hung the fruit on 
the trees and the roses on the stems. I now know that 
the fruit is in the tree, and that under proper condi- 
tions it comes out where it can be seen, and where 
men may gather it, and use it for their own good. 
So the external life, is but the internal coming out 
where it may be seen; and when men see our lives 
on the outside, they can tell quite well what kind 
of life is on the inside. In the spring time the trees 
are all leafless and bare. It is a time of dead leaves, 
of dead grass, of dead flowers. But the spring time 
beauties are coming, and the trees are to have new 
foliage, and the meadows a new carpet, and the 
flowers new colorings, and there is to be life and 
loveliness everywhere. I have sometimes thought 



80 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 

that as this time approached, the dead grass and the 
dead leaves, might be saying to each other; we had 
better be getting off the fields and trees, so as to 
make room for the new foliage and carpet that is 
soon to be here. We must not interfere with their 
coming." 

Leaves and grass, your interest in the new born 
beauty and the fresher life is to be appreciated, 
but you need not go to any trouble whatever or 
give yourselves a moment's anxiety, for the forces of 
nature are working, silently 'tis true, but none the 
less effectively, and the new, when it comes will have 
power to push off the old, and array the trees and 
fields with the loveliness and life of spring. Some- 
times a man feels that he must cut off his sins and 
rid himself of the old life in order to make room for 
the new. All he needs to do, is to get the new, and 
the old will be gone. It will go before the love and 
life of Jesus Christ, as the old dead grass and 
leaves go before the new born garments of the spring 
time, and he will not know where they have gone 
any more than we know where the grass and leaves 
went, and the new life within will give a new life 
without, and that life without will be in harmony 
with all the conditions and circumstances to which 
it may be related. 

THE UP-RIGHT. 

The Right Endeavorer is not only related to 
himself, and things outside himself, but he is re- 
lated to things above himself. Outside ourselves 
there are three classes of things with which we have 
to do. 



THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 81 

The Inferior, The Equal, and the Superior. 
There are things beneath us, which if we touch, we 
have to stoop, and we are in juried by the contact. 
Anything which requires a bending of my manhood 
to obtain has nothing but harm in it for me when 
obtained. Then I have to do with things which are 
equal to me. They are on the same plane of my 
life. They neither add to my life nor take from it. 
They are like me, and my contact with them leaves 
me as I was before. Then there are things above me. 
Infinitely above me, and if I obtain them at all, it 
requires a lifting up of my life ; the stretching up of 
every faculty of my being. Paul says in his letter 
to the Colossians, "If ye then be risen with Christ, 
seek those things which are above, where Christ 
sitteth on the right hand of God." That is, if you 
have the In-Right Life, and the Out-Right Life, 
then you will seek an Up-Right Life, or be properly 
related to things above you. All that is above us is 
helpful to us because it requires an uplifting of the 
life to obtain it. You ask me to name the things 
above, and I frankly tell you that I neither have 
time nor patience so to do. They cannot be cata- 
logued, yet they cannot be mistaken. Every soul 
that has a right inner life knows what it is to aspire, 
to breathe up, to desire things that are beyond the 
line of sight, and the heart can name them faster 
than you can write them. Why waste time in nam- 
ing the things that are above us? We know them 
without naming them. We know when we are mean, 
and we do not ask for a definition of that particular 
meanness with which we are afflicted. We know 
what it is to be good, to belong to the brotherhood of 



82 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 

the saints, and feel that we are inhabitants of the 
city of light, and we never ask for a definition nor 
for names. There are things above us and we are 
conscious of the fact, and if we are Up-Right En- 
deavorers we seek them. I can see that little boat 
in which the apostles crossed the lake on the night 
following the feeding of the five thousand in the 
desert place. I can see the figure of the Christ as he 
walks upon the water, his form outlined in unspeak- 
able grandeur in the darkness of the night. He ap- 
proaches the boat and the disciples see what they 
suppose to be a ghost, and they cry out in fear, it's 
a ghost ! it's a ghost ! it's a ghost ! Then Jesus tells 
them that it is He, and for them not to be afraid. 
Peter ever ready for an adventure, asks permission 
to come to him on the water and Jesus tells him to 
come. He does not go far until he begins to sink. 
I have always heard it said that when Peter took his 
eyes off the Christ he began to sink. Candidly I do 
not think he ever had his eyes on the Christ until 
he found himself sinking. When he stepped down 
out of the boat that night I think he turned his 
head toward the other disciples as much as to say, 
"None of you fellows could do this." "I am the only 
man in the boat that could do a thing so remarkable 
as walking on the sea. Just see me go." He thought 
of himself just like some of us do when the Master 
permits us to do an unusually pleasant or helpful 
service. But he soon begins to sink; the pathway 
for his feet is not solid; he feels himself sinking, 
and above the sinking form is the Christ. A white 
face full of pleading is turned upward now, and a 
strong hand is extended downward, and the helpless 



THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 83 

and the Helper, come in touch with each other, the 
life below is now properly related to the life above, 
and Peter is lifted to a solid footing and soon finds 
himself safe in the boat with the disciples. One 
thing is sure, Christ is above us, and unless we are 
related to Him in a way that brings His life into 
ours we are not Up-Right Endeavorers. "Set your 
affection on things above." Be related to the things 
that are able to bless you. Do not bend your life 
earthward but lift it heavenward. There are multi- 
plied thousands of Up-Right Endeavorers who have 
touched the life above them, thus making their 
course truer, purer, nobler, and more glorious ; keep- 
ing their senses chaste and clean, their affections 
sweet and their conscience healthy. He who is thus 
in touch with things above him needs no label upon 
him to tell of his church membership and where he at- 
tends the Christian Endeavor service. His smile is 
his certificate; his deeds stand out as so many wit- 
nesses to his character, and his upright life is known 
and respected by all his companions. He is a legible 
Christian ; his goodly deeds and kindly life have re- 
lieved the sorrow and dried the tears of the broken 
hearted ,and his ear has been open to the cry of the 
needy. The children, the aged, the infirm, the poor, 
and the burdened rise up and call him blessed. 

THE DOWN-RIGHT. 

To be a Down-Right Endeavorer one is to be 
properly related to things beneath himself. Here he 
touches the things that are beneath himself; he goes 
to the plane of the inferior. Now when he touches 
the things that are beneath him, one of two things 



84 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 

must occur. He must lift them up to the level of 
his own life, or they will drag him down to the level 
of theirs. They must either rise by the touch, or he 
will sink by it. Jesus Christ touched our humanity, 
since which time he has been lifting it up. He 
touched only things below Him when touching 
earthly things but they too have been lifted by the 
touch, slowly 'tis true, but certainly, nevertheless. 
This dees not always occur when we touch that 
which is beneath us. Many a pure good girl 
has married a drunken, unworthy man with 
the hope of lifting him up to the plane of her 
own goodness, to find that later on she has 
sunken to the level of his. I can see in my vision 
of this truth the marriage altar. I can hear the full 
organ peals. I can see the bright lights and happy 
faces; the long white veil trailing through the aisle. 
The ceremony and congratulations with now and 
then a whispered word "She will be able to reform 
him; her sweet life is perfectly irresistible." A 
few years later and we have a sad faced broken 
hearted woman, waiting for staggering footsteps. 
Old garments stuck into the broken window panes. 
Marks of hardship and suffering on the face. Neg- 
lect, cruelty, and despair; and still later I see a 
woman whose face does not show sorrow and care, 
but dissipation and sin. She held on bravely, and 
hoped against hope, but the struggle was an uneven 
one, and little by little she relented, and little by 
little she sank to the level of the man which she had 
undertaken to lift to the heights of her own life. 
And again I see three graves in a dark place in an 
obscure corner of the Potter's field. Flowerless 



THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 85 

graves, neglected graves, forsaken graves; one holds 
the body of the little one whom God gave them, and 
who died for the want of medicine ; one contains the 
body of the wife, and the other the body of the man 
who had power to drag the wonam of his early love 
to the depths of his own degraded life. The epitaph 
that should be written for the dear dead child should 
be, "Suffer little children and forbid them not to 
come unto me for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
The one for the other two should be "Destroyed 
Souls." An eternity of night. No light. No music. 
No hope. Blackness of darkness forever. Dear 
young friends unless you are doubly sure that by 
your touch you can lift that which is beneath you 
to your level, you had better not touch it at all. 

An eagle was once seen soaring near the tall 
mountain top. The eagle is a bird much praised for 
its soaring. We should not praise him too much, for 
in fact he only goes up that he may look down. In 
some frenzy of poetic feeling we might say, Behold 
the royal bird seeking the sun ! Not he ; he does not 
care for the sun; but that from some unmeasured 
height, his burning eye may better see the prey. 
This proud bird of which I spoke was seen to poise 
in the air and look earthward, and then descend 
with a mighty swoop until it touched the ground. 
In a moment it was seen to rise. It had come in 
contact with something beneath itself. If it lifts 
what it has touched to its nest, then a supper for 
the young eaglets and satisfaction for the mother 
bird. But it is seen to falter. Its great body sways 
in the air like a ship tossed by the wind of the sea. 
One wing drops and then the other, and the proud 



8G THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 

bird of the mountain falls to the earth helpless, 
dead! What has happened to it? It picked up a 
scorpion which fastened its fangs in its vitals and 
poisoned it to death. Man is represented by the 
eagle. He can go higher than the loftiest mountain 
peak. He can pass through the clouds and even the 
heavens themselves, and stand by the power of his 
thinking in the presence of the Eternal. He stoops 
to get that which is beneath him. He fails to lift 
it up, and dies a victim to the poison of the touch. 
Money is beneath him. He must stoop to get it. If 
he gets it at all, he gets it by stooping. Can he lift it 
to the plane of a manhood life? If so, he has blessed 
himself, and dignified the money, but if he stays 
down where he went to get it, it has cursed him and 
done the money no good. He seeks companions be- 
neath himself, intellectually beneath himself; so- 
cially beneath himself, religiously beneath himself; 
he must lift them up to his plane, or they will drag 
him down to theirs. 

There are some things beneath us, which 
can never be lifted above themselves. They are 
eternally fixed in their spheres and our only 
true relationship to them is to let them alone. 
Severely let them alone ; everlastingly let them alone, 
except to make one long continued, persistent effort, 
to destroy them. Things that cannot be lifted above 
their plane of life must be destroyed. The saloon is 
on a much lower plane than manhood and cannot 
be made anything else than a saloon. It cannot be 
made better. As a saloon it is eternally fixed and 
must so remain. You may paint the windows, legal- 
ize the traffic, and say that the saloonist is a nice 



THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 87 

man outside of his business, (and so is the devil) 
but the saloon still remains a nest of unclean birds, 
too foul and dirty for the most polluted place in hell. 
I think the devil must feel outraged when a saloon 
keeper comes down and forces his foul and polluted 
companionship upon him. He certainly feels that 
he has over done it in a case or two. I tell you the 
modern saloon is the gate of hell. They do not put 
the right sign on their doors. They call them "res- 
taurants/' and "hotels," and "sample rooms," and 
"wine parlors," and "pleasure gardens," and other 
beautiful and attractive names. Why not write over 
every door the "Shortest Way to Poverty/' "The 
Sure Road to Death/' "Heart Breakers and Home 
Destroyers/' "The Gate of Death and the Way to 
Hell V Why do they not say here is a place beneath 
the life of every young man, and if he goes down to 
it he shall never return? Why not say "this is a 
caldron of iniquity, a sess-pool of pollution, and there 
is nothing decent about it, and the young life that 
comes down here will be covered with rags and 
clothed with shame." Yes, the saloon is beneath you, 
and it is there to stay. You can't pray it up. You 
can't lift it up, you can't prop it up; it is just a 
nasty, dirty saloon, and must remain so. 

"They talk of the man behind the gun, 
And the deadly work that he has done; 
But much more deadly work by far 
Is done by the fellow behind the bar." 

"They talk of the man behind the gun — 
Yet only in battle his work is done; 
But never ceases, in peace or war, 
The work of the man behind the bar." 



88 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 

Cards are beneath you, and to play them you 
have to go away down. Whoever heard of a religious 
card party? The card table is a vice of ungainly 
dimensions the evil of which has rolled over our 
entire country. We arraign the modern card table 
at the bar of reason and conscience as an institution 
or unenviable history and pernicious influence, and 
express it as an opinion worthy of consideration 
that the cultured (?) card parties of the modern 
home, are more responsible for the gamblers of today 
than any other one thing. Card playing is an evil, 
a spell, a vice, and the Christian Endeavorer who 
indulges in it, does so at the risk of going so far 
down that he can never come back. 

Dancing is beneath you. Yes, you can dance, 
but you must go away down from your present 
manhood and womanhood to do it. A young 
lady once asked me if I thought it any 
harm to dance. I said, "would you think 
it any harm for me to dance ?" and what would 
you think if I should announce the dance to which 
you and I were to go, from the pulpit next Sunday 
morning?" "Oh/ said she, "I wouldn't have you do 
that for anything in the world. It would be per- 
fectly shocking." "Well, then," said I, "You have 
given the answer to your own question. It is per- 
fectly shocking." "Well, then," said she, "What 
makes the boys like to dance so well ?" Said I, "My 
dear girl, boys do not like to dance." "Oh, yes, they 
certainly do." "No," said I, "you could not get the 
boys to dance for pay; boys do not like to dance, 
and I know it." "Well, then," said my fair in- 
quirer, "what makes them dance so much?" "Just 



THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 89 

to get to hug you, that's all." You take the girl out 
of the dance and you will take the dance out of the 
boy. Men will not dance with each other; they en- 
joy the hug, and I sometimes think the girls do too ! 
But when it comes to that, I would rather have mine 
in the good old fashioned way of the days gone by. 
Amos E. Wells, of the Golden Rule has said: 
"Dancing— like all Gaul — is divided into three 
parts: One-third is esthetic, one-third is physical 
exercise, one-third is sensual." The distinguished 
gentleman was evidently speaking of the dance in 
its early stages, for at last it is all sensual. Men 
will play cards without women, play base ball, and 
foot ball, and polo, and every other kind of game 
alone, but they will not dance without women. Dr. 
Howard Crosbv said : "The foundation for the vast 
amount of domestic misery and domestic crime 
which startles us often in its public out-croppings, 
was laid when parents allowed the sacredness of 
their daughters' persons and the purity of their 
maiden instincts to be rudely shocked in the waltz." 
The Presbyterian Board published the following: 
"The dancing school, instead of being called a school 
of easy manners, ought rather to be styled a place 
where girls are taught to substitute the finesse of the 
coquette for true feminine delicacy, and where boys 
take their primary lessons in the art of seduction." 
"Women of virtue or self respect," wrote Mrs. Gen. 
W. T. Sherman to the author of "The Dance of 
Death," will now blush to have the dance named to 
them. An amusement which leads, in any case, to 
such results as you have pointed out should be 
forever discountenanced." An ex-dancing master, 



90 THE RIGHT ENDEAVORER 

Mr. T. A. Faulkner, once proprietor of the Los An- 
geles Dancing Academy and ex-president of the 
Dancing Masters' Association of the Pacific Coast, 
gives it as his deliberate conviction that "two-thirds 
of the girls who are ruined, fall through the influence 
of dancing." The matron of a home for fallen 
women in Los Angeles, declares that "Seven-tenths 
of the girls received there have fallen through danc- 
ing and its influence." Of the 2,500 abandoned 
women of San Francisco, Professor LaFloris testi- 
fies: "1 can safely say that three-fourths of these 
women were led to their downfall through the in- 
fluence of dancing." The chief of police of the City 
of New York is authority for the statement that 
"three-fourths of the abandoned girls of New York 
were ruined by dancing." And Archbishop Spauld- 
ing, of New York, is reported to have said that 
"nineteen out of twenty of the fallen women who 
come to the confessional have ascribed their fall 
from virtue to the influence of the dance." 

Who can tell the number who have stepped 
from the ball room into the grave yard. Consump- 
tions and swift neuralgies are close on their track. 
The breath of the sepulchre is on every whirl of the 
giddy maze and the froth of death lurks in every 
contact of the sex, to say nothing of the moral rot- 
tenness and social impurity it creates, fosters, and 
spreads abroad. Young People of the Christian 
Endeavor Society hear me to-night when I say, the 
dance is far below your manhood and womanhood. 
Be In-Right, Out-Right, Up-Right, and Down-Right 
and you will be Ail-Right. 



THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER. 

Looks are quite suggestive. They indicate char- 
acter and feeling. When the "Hoosier School 
Master" "spelled down Jeems Phillips" one suffo- 
cating look from the aqueous eyes of Mirands Mean, 
destroyed all his interest in the occasion, and took 
out of his heart the last spark of pleasure in his 
great victory and sent that awful below zero feeling 
clear through him. The old time "sheep's eyes/' 
have given place to a more dreadful look, called 
the "goo-goo" eyes, by which I suppose is meant, 
an ogling, simpering, tittering, blushing, snickering, 
silly, love sick look, all in one. A look saved the 
snake-bitten Israelites in the wilderness from an 
awful death. A look brought them illumination, 
"they looked unto Him and were lightened." A look 
brings salvation to the soul, "Look unto me and be 
ye saved." Looking at the things which are seen 
makes us worldly minded, while looking at the 
things which are not seen makes us spiritually 
minded. 

On his circuit in Louisiana, the Rev. D. Devinne 
found a settler who had been reproved by Fletcher of 
Madley for profanity ; he was "struck dumb" by the 
look of the vicar, and though he afterwards went 
to sea, forgot the words of the rebuke, and was 
recklessly wicked, that look never escaped his mind. 
"It followed him everywhere, into whatever part of 
the world he went, and annoyed him in all his sins." 
On penetrating Louisiana, and hearing the Metho- 



92 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 

dist itinerant fifty years later, the remembered 
u look" overpowered him. 

The thieves looked upon the traveler going from 
Jerusalem to Jerico with a look of greed. They 
wanted what he had. The priest looked upon him 
with perfect indifference; he cared nothing whatever 
for his suffering, but passed him by with an absolute 
indifference to his condition or to the outcome of 
it all. The Levite looked upon him with an empty 
sympathy; he came to the place and looked, but 
did not help. The Samaritan looked upon him with 
compassion; his heart was stirred with pity. Here 
we have four classes of individuals looking upon 
the same man, but each with a different look. The 
man did some looking too, and his looks were in 
keeping with the looks of those who looked upon him. 
He looked upon the thieves with a look of terror. 
Who can describe the feeling of the poor man's heart 
when he saw that gang of robbers with black caps 
and heavy clubs rush out upon him. He looked upon 
the priest with expectation. He had a perfect right 
to expect the priest to help him. They were of the 
same race and religion, and they were men. And 
besides this, the priest made a profession of goodness 
and was thereby under obligation to help him. He 
looked upon the Levite with disappointment ; his 
heart must have sunk within him when the Levite 
came so close to him and then failed to help him. 
He looked upon the Samaritan with gratitude. He 
helped him, and out of the fallen, bleeding man's 
heart went a gratitude that was forcefully expressed 
in his looks. 

It is said of Jesus Christ, that he entered into 



THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 93 

Jerusalem and into the temple, and when he had 
looked around about upon all things, "he went out." 
The comprehensiveness of this act makes one feel that 
he is girt about with all seeing eyes. The silence of 
the act almost frightens us. Jesus came into the city 
and into the temjjle, and looked about on all things, 
and never said a word. That is the most significant 
thing he ever did! When men speak to me, there 
is a way of understanding what they mean. But there 
is even among men, looks that are mysterious, and 
incomprehensible! There are some glances shot 
from human eyes that trouble the beholder! Can 
guilt endure the silent inquiring gaze of innocent 
eyes? Does not the corrupt man fear the eye of 
the just man more than he does the fire, or the flood, 
the court or the prison? The look of the preacher 
should mean something. The honest, earnest man, 
should have a look peculiar to himself. Many a 
sermon has failed to take effect because the preach- 
er's face gave the lie to his voice. When Jesus 
would rebuke Peter most severely, he did not cry 
out, Shame! He did not say, "I cannot depend 
upon your promises! I am ashamed of you! You 
are always getting yourself and others into 
trouble!" He said not a word, but turned and looked 
upon Peter. There is little protection from the eye. 
There is a protection from nearly every other source 
of communication, but from the eye there is little or 
none. We must look, and 

THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER IS ONE WHO 
LOOKS AT HIMSELF. 

There is a distinct selfhood, which everyone 



94 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 

should feel ; a personality of which every one should 
be conscious, and an individuality at which we 
should often and carefully look. We spend too 
much time in looking at others, and far too little 
time in looking at ourselves. I think right here 
would be a good time to give you the advice of 
Cowper when he says, 

"Beware of too sublime a sense 
Of your own worth and consequence. 
The man who dreams himself so great, 
And his importance of such weight, 
That all around in all that's done 
Must move and act for him alone, 
Will learn in school of tribulation, 
The folly of his expectation." 

We are by far the most interesting characters 
our eyes have ever seen, and wiien we get one good 
square look at ourselves, we shall wonder at the 
things we see. Paul recognized this self-hood, this 
distinct personality. He said "for me to live is 
Christ." He may have said "I am a hunch-back. I 
am near-sighted, and this old weather beaten barque 
is soon to be wrecked, but I have a personality, a 
self -hood that is distinctively my own; it is dif- 
ferent from all others; it is in a sense independent 
of all others; but it is a personality and it asserts 
itself, has a purpose, a duty, and a destiny. Paul 
very often looked at himself, and were he living to- 
day in the flesh, he would be reckoned as "A Good 
Looking Endeavorer." It is said of the prodigal 
that "he came to himself," which in my way of 
thinking is literally true. He came to see himself. 



THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 95 

He did not see his rags nor his poverty,. nor his 
friendless, homeless, destitute condition, nor the 
pigs nor the pens, nor the slop nor the slush; he 
saw himself; he saw his personality; his self -hood, 
he got his eye on the prodigal, and off the things 
with which he had been associated, and when he 
saw himself he wanted to run away from himself, 
and get into better company. No man sees himself 
as he is, until the face of God shines upon him, and 
in the light of that face he is sure to see who he is, 
what he is, and what he is doing. The thieves on the 
cross represent the necessity and advantage of 
looking at one's self. One of the thieves did not see 
himeslf at all. He saw only the cruel torture of the 
cross; he raved and railed; he cursed and taunted. 
The other looked upon himself, to see himself a thief 
condemned to die, and piteously begged for mercy. 
He was a good looking Endeavorer for he looked 
upon himself. This looking at himself led him to see 
his need and recognized the only source of supply. 
It is a good look when one looks at himself. Not 
long ago I was talking to a man who said to me, 
"Now there are but two of us here, and I want to 
tell you something just between ourselves." I said, 
"There are more than two of us here!" He looked 
astonished as well as to look around to see if any- 
one beside ourselves were present. Then turning 
to me he said, "You are mistaken, we are the only 
persons present." I still insisted that there were 
at least six of us present. When he demanded that 
I explain I said, "Well, you are the man you are; 
that is one; then, you are the man you think you 
are, and that is another; then you are the man I 



96 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 

think you are, that is three; then I am the man I 
ain, and the man I think I am, and the man you 
think I am, and that makes three more; and the 
three on your side, and the three on my side makes 
at least six." We must, if we would be Good Look- 
ing Endeavorers look at ourselves. 

THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER IS ONE WHO 
LOOKS AWAY FROM SELF. 

He will take one good square look at himself, 
at his motives, at his purposes, at his plans, at his 
weakness, and then look to something better. It 
is a fixed principle in the economy of grace, that one 
must look away from self. In the long ago when the 
serpents got among the Israelites, God told Moses 
to put a brazen serpent on a pole, and that who- 
soever would look to that serpent should live. I 
think of Moses and the elders going through the 
camp and calling to the poisoned and suffering 
people to look up; I can almost hear them say, 
"Look up! Look up! Look away from self and suf- 
fering, to God's means of healing." Jesus was the 
fulfillment of all the types, and he says "And I, if 
I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." The 
Good Looking Endeavorer w T ill look to Jesus. The 
painter who undertakes to copy some masterpiece 
of art sits down before the sketches, the outline upon 
his own canvas, reproduces the coloring of the 
model, adds item by item to his picture, constantly 
looking upon the original, noting its quality and the 
deficiencies of his ow T n work, till by scrupulous care, 
and untiring endeavor, he reproduces a fac simile 



THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 97 

of the original. Thus will the Christian Endeavorer 
who wants to mould his life after the life of Christ, 
and work out his character after the original de- 
signs of the perfect model, ever look to Jesus 
Christ. 

Once upon a time a woman had a dream, in which 
she fancied herself at the bottom of a deep pit. She 
looked around to see if there were any way of get- 
ting out; but in vain. Presently, looking upward, 
she saw in that part of the heavens immediately 
above the mouth of the pit, a beautiful bright star. 
Steadily gazing at it, she felt herself to be gradually 
lifted upward. She looked down to ascertain how 
it was, and immediately found herself at the bottom 
of the pit. Again her eye caught sight of the star, 
and again she felt herself ascending. She had 
reached a considerable height. Still desirous of an 
explanation of so strange a phenomenon, she turned 
her eve downward, and fell to the bottom with fear- 
ful violence. On recovering from the effect of the 
shock, she bethought herself as to the meaning of it 
all, and once again turned her eye to the star, still 
shining so brightly above, and yet once again felt 
herself borne upward. Steadily did she keep her eye 
upon its light, till, at length, she found herself out 
of the horrible pit, and her feet safely planted on 
the solid ground above. It taught her the lesson, 
that, in the hour of danger and trouble, deliverance 
is to be found and found only, by looking unto Jesus. 

How inspiring and transforming to look away 
from self to the Christ, and to stand perpetually 
in his presence, and have the silent forces of trans- 



98 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 

formation to do their perfect work in changing us 
into his likeness and image; to feel ourselves grow- 
ing up into the perfection of his manhood, and the 
beauty of his life. No one ever forgets their first 
impressions when standing before the statue of 
Washington, or when looking into the Crypt at his 
old home at Mt. Vernon. The mind will run back 
to his heroic deeds and self sacrificing life; to his 
struggles for the liberty of our country; the mind 
will recall how his calm and well balanced genius, 
nerved and led a nation poorly equipped for war, 
through the dread ordeal of the Revolution, and 
how his lofty unambitious spirit gave up all the 
untold glories of future generations, resisting every 
temptation to personal power, and consecrating his 
"All" upon the altar of his country. The heart will 
thrill, and a deep fervent inspiration will move it, 
when before the representative of the great and good 
Washington. But what is a Washington, compared 
with a Christ? What is The Washington, compared 
with The Christ? What is Our Washington, com- 
pared with Our Christ? Look to Jesus for inspira- 
tion, for power, for place, for safety, for heaven, 
for manhood and womanhood; in a word, look to 
Jesus for everything you need or desire. Henry Ward 
Beecher tells of the time when he was a student in 
Amherst college and a course of lectures was given 
by the great Dr. Hitchcock. The subject of the 
lectures was dyspepsia, the lecturer himself a con- 
firmed dyspeptic. He taught the students that they 
must weigh their meat, weigh their bread, measure 
their drink, and run their appetites by a well regu- 
lated rule. Mr. Beecher says, "It was not long 



THE GOOD LOOKING BNDEAVORER 99 

until the students began to invest in scales and de- 
velop dyspepsia." 

Do you know the reason that so many Christian 
Endeavorers, and Endeavor Societies have such bad 
cases of spiritual dyspepsia? It is because they 
have been looking at themselves, at their local inter- 
ests rather than away from self and selfish interests 
to the great Divine Christ. They are not Good Look- 
ing Endeavorers who never look away from them- 
selves, nor their societies. Suppose you were on 
ship-board during a storm, and while the waves were 
rolling, and the boat plunging and the white crests 
were bursting, and the fire balls were falling from 
the sky, and the heavens were a sheet of flame, and 
the thunder's deafening peals were following hard 
upon each other, and death, ghastly death, stared 
you in the face, and a watery grave seemed the only 
possibility, the captain would go looking for guid- 
ance among the wheels of the engine, or the rigging 
of the ship ! Why, you would say to him, "Captain, 
you must look to your compass, you must, if it is 
day time, consult the sun, and if night, you must 
ask of the stars if the weather be fair, but now you 
must look to your compass!" You might just as 
well look in the hold of the ship for the north star, 
as to your local society for the Sun of Eighteousness, 
or to your own little life for guidance and inspira- 
tion, when you have a case of spiritual dyspepsia. 
Look away from self ; Look to Jesus. 

THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER, IS ONE WHO 
LOOKS INTO THE GOSPEL MIRROR. 

This, every Christian Endeavorer has promised 

LofCi 



100 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 

to do, and this he must do, if he is faithful as God 
counts faithfulness. James tells us of those, who 
look into the perfect law of liberty and immediately 
turn away, forgetting what manner of men they 
are. Did you look into the mirror before coming 
here to-night? You didn't! Well you neglected a 
very important duty. You do not know how you 
look, and every one is obligated to look the best they 
can. Beauty is a duty. You say you looked into the 
glass before you started for the service? Well, that 
was right. How did you look? Did you look like 
a gentleman ? Then act like one. Did you look like 
a lady? Then act like one. Did you look like a 
Christian Endeavorer? Then act like one. Did you 
look like a real Christian ? Then act like one. You 
think that it is an easy thing to look into the per- 
fect law of liberty, do you ? Well there is where you 
are mistaken. The word "looketh" means to "stoop 
along-side." It literally means, a peering. Some 
men look into the gospel mirror and do not see any- 
thing, because they do not look long enough. The 
Bible will not give up its treasures to the casual 
looker. The man who glances into the Bible sees 
nothing. The man who secures the wisdom of this 
great book is the one who looks long and intently; 
never taking his eyes off until he sees what he is 
looking for. He will say to you, "do not distrub me ; 
if I turn my eyes away for one moment, I will not 
get the truth of The Book. The Apostle would put 
great emphasis upon this looking, by the use of the 
word "continueth." The word "therein" is in italics, 
and therefore we may cut it out, and that leaves us 
to read the true meaning of Paul, who wants us to 



THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 101 

continue peering, stooping, looking, with undivided 
attention and unabated interest. In looking into 
this wonderful book, we find instructions for every 
sphere of life, home, state, church, social and busi- 
ness. Entering the domain of home, it says, "hus- 
bands love your wives." If some husbands were to 
see this and obey it, their wives would be greatly 
surprised. They have been loving wives all right 
enough, but their wives, alas, have not for the last 
several years had so much as a smile, and a kiss 
would be as new and strange to them as in the days 
of girlhood innocence. It says "wives submit your- 
selves to your own husbands." Well, if that were done, 
there would be less divorce proceedings and more 
domestic felicity. To the children it says "Obey 
your parents in the Lord ;" to the citizen it says, 
"Bender unto Csesar the things that are Caesar's 
and to God the things that are God's;" to 
the fathers it says, "Fathers provoke not your chil- 
dren to wrath" and to the Christian it has so much 
to say that he must keep peering into it, or he will 
miss very much that he should see. To all men it 
says, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do 
to you do ye even so to them." 

In the fabulous records of pagan antiquity, we 
read of a mirror endowed with properties so rare, 
that by looking into it, its possessor could discover 
any object which he wished to see, however remote; 
and discover with equal ease persons and things 
above, below, behind and before him. Such a mir- 
ror, but infinitely more valuable than this fictitious 
glass, do we possess in the Bible; by employing it 
in a proper manner we may discern objects and 



102 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 

events, past, present, and to come. Here we may 
contemplate the all-enfolding circle of the eternal 
mind, and behold a perfect portrait of Him whom 
no mortal eye hath seen, drawn by his own unerring 
hand. 

THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER, IS ONE WHO 

LOOKS FOR OPPORTUNITIES FOR 

GETTING GOOD. 

Underlying all Christian service is the character 
of the individual. It is but little use to try to do 
good unless you are able to get good. There are 
entirely too many trying to pump water out of dry 
wells. This thing of always trying to be a Chris- 
tian, must be an irksome task. The good looking 
endeavorer, will keep his eyes open for opportuni- 
ties to refresh his spiritual life. He will see streams 
in the desert, and will gather fruit and flowers 
where others see nothing but barreness ; he will hear 
songs and receive impressions for good from the 
silence and sources, which to others are cold and 
without voice. The principle of evolution, involves 
the principle of involution. That you cannot get 
more sugar out of a barrel than has been put into 
it, is true, nor can you get more good out of a 
Christian Endeavorer than has been put into him. 
Jesus uses two words which suggests the entire field 
of experience and activity. He says "Come," and 
then he says, "Go." "Come and get good, and then 
go and do good." 

There is great good to be gotten from the 
public service. I mean the public worship of 



THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 103 

the Church. There is no place known to me 
where so much good can be gotten in so short a 
time. Here are songs, prayers, sermons, anthems, 
associations, inspirations, and suggestions, which 
feed and nourish the soul, as nothing else can. And 
then we must remember that it is God's appointed 
way. It is by the foolishness of preaching that He 
has planned to save the world. I know of no 
pleasure so rich, no service so profitable, none so 
hallowed^ so helpful, so constant in their supply as 
the worship of God at the times and places ap- 
pointed for it. Pleasant as the water brook to the 
thirsty hart, so is it to approach unto the living 
God. 

There is a great opportunity for getting good 
from our private devotions. When alone with 
God and one lifts the heart in silent prayer and 
thanksgiving, there comes into the life a power and 
a joy, such as can come from no other source. One 
of the great and pressing needs of our time and of 
all times is for religious meditation, for more quiet 
communion with God in one's own heart. Christ's 
command to go alone into the closet and shut the 
door upon the world has in it the secret of rich 
blessings; blessings of strength, of hope, of power, 
of life, of love, of faith, which no good looking en- 
deavorer will overlook. 

There is good to he gotten out of the socials. 
We have come to think of socials as means of doing 
good; and they are, but they are also means of 
getting good, as well. The trouble with our socials 
is that many of them are very unsocial. We suffer 
ourselves to divide into little squads, we sit in 



104 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 

little groups, and hold our little circles intact, and 
defy any outside the select few to enter. Gold, and 
houses, and lands, and ambition, and age, and place, 
and many other things, separate men into classes, 
and they sneak off into their little gulches, and we 
condemn them for their sin and selfishness, but what 
about the little divisions and clans, that are in evi- 
dence in many of our so-called Endeavor Socials? 
What a farce a Christian Endeavor Social is that 
is not social! We are oftentimes separatists in- 
stead of socialists, when we meet in the parlors or 
dining halls of the church for a social ( ?) hour. 

Amos R. Wells, that prince of the Endeavor 
Social, has this to say, in his book "Social to Save :" 
"The spirit of snobbishness will kill the socials of 
any society. Christ would not be admitted to-day 
into certain circles of so-called Christians, if he 
came in the working clothes of a carpenter. God's 
socials must be democratic, and the washerwoman's 
daughter and the ashman's son must be made to 
feel as much at home as the daughter of Senator 
Biggun or the son of General Moneybags. Egotism, 
the feeling that you are better than other people, 
either on account of a better filled purse, or because 
of a better filled head, or because of some other gift 
of fortune or industry, will destroy any social — ■ 
does kill every social that is dead at all. But in 
place of this contemptible spirit the humble ac- 
knowledgment of sinfulness and unworthiness, and 
the glad perception that all for whom Christ died are 
brothers and sisters in him, and you will have, you 
cannot help having successful socials. I do not much 
care what games you play, or whether you play at 



THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 105 

all; what refreshments you serve, or whether you 
let the overburdened stomach alone, and serve none 
at all; sociability does not consist in forms and 
trappings, but in the spirit. Forget yourselves; re- 
member Christ; seek to win friends for him: this 
is my recipe for a good social. Forget yourselves; 
remembr Christ; seek to win souls for him" 

Those of us who have felt it, know that there is 
no joy so sweet as the joy of saving souls. There 
is no pleasure quite so unalloyed, as the pleasure 
that results from winning souls to Christ. But 
there is good in everything; in song, in flower, in 
brook, in joy, in sorrow, in pain, in disappointment; 
in poverty, in riches, in hardship, in success, in 
companionship, in solitude, in the socials, and the 
good looking endeavorer will look for it, find it, and 
get it out for his own heart. 

THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER, IS ONE WHO 
LOOKS FOR OPPORTUNITIES FOR DOING GOOD. 

It is not enough for us to get good, we must 
do good. Some people's religion consists of two 
things: Getting religion, and then boasting about 
having it. God packs the sun full of heat and light, 
and says to it, "Now shine," and the sun shines, 
and the hills are tipped with glory, and the valleys 
are flooded with light. God says to the heart : "You 
pump up the blood, and then pump it out again." 
And the heart does as it is bidden, and rivers of 
rich red blood flow throughout the entire body. God 
says to the flower, "I have filled you with fra- 
grance, now emit it, so that every sense of life may 



106 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 

be enriched." And the flower does as it is told, and 
the air is redolent with the bloom of roses, and the 
winds carry the sweet fragrance everywhere. So 
the Christian Endeavorer must get good and do 
good. Doing good includes two things: 

First, Deeds of Mercy. Here is an element of our 
religion that is very sadly neglected, and often ut- 
terly disregarded. In our disregard for this ele- 
ment, we have made our religion a religion of alms 
giving; a religion of mouldy bread, and cast off 
blankets. The church has been influenced by the 
spirit and methods of the fraternity to her harm. 
The fraternity lays no claim to a divine institution, 
nor does it seek to deal with man's spiritual nature. 
It has advice for him, and help for him, and the help 
is in material things, and the appeal is often to the 
gross and sensual plane of life, but as many live 
down there the plan of help has become popular and 
the church has tried to carry out the same plans, 
and in so doing has neglected the more important 
and diviner life it should live. In the time of Christ 
on the earth, a woman was brought to him taken in 
the very act of one of the most crying sins of that 
or any other age of the world. She may have been 
rich. We know that many of her kind today are 
rich. She did not need alms; she did not need 
bread; she did not need money; she did not need 
clothes; she needed sympathy, love, mercy, charity, 
and a help that would lift her out of her sins into 
a life of purity. 

There is many a poor down trodden woman, who 
dresses in silks, lives in mansions, and rides behind 
the prancing bays, whose life is a burden, and who 



THE OGOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 107 

would, if she could, break away from her old life 
and gladly enter into the new. She would spurn 
your money and despise you for offering her bread, 
but you go to her with your heart's sympathy, with 
your love, and your tender mercy, and she will wel- 
come you to her heart with an unfeigned love, and 
her smile at your coming will be the radiance of an 
angel's face when it looks into the life of God. 
Jesus tells us of an ox that fell into the pit on the 
Sabbath day. It might have been fed, and watered, 
and cared for, and made comfortable, and all that, 
but it would still have been an ox in a pit. What 
it needed was some one to pull it out. I tell you, 
if we are good looking endeavorers, we will look for 
the man in the pit, and when we find him, we will 
not feed him there, and bring him water, and care 
for him, but we will reach down a strong arm to 
him and help him out. There are men and women 
in the pits of sin today, who have all the luxuries 
the world affords. They do not need any material 
thing, but they do need a helping hand, a sympa- 
thetic life, a kindly word, an open heart and door, 
and when they receive it, they will be glad and 
grateful. Endeavorers go out and look for them. 
Second. Deeds of Benevolence. Jesus was a 
good looking endeavorer ; he saw the lame, the halt, 
the blind, the deaf, the poor, and helped them. The 
life of Jesus Christ, which had it been written, John 
says, would have filled the whole earth, may be told 
in this one sentence, "He went about doing good." 
In this work He lived; for this end He died. This 
mission of doing good drew Him from the skies; 
this was "the joy set before Him" for which He 



108 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 

wore the thorny crown, and bore His heavy cross. 
And be it remembered, that none are His but those 
that are baptized with this baptism ; — Not even you, 
unless the same mind be in you that was in Jesus 
Christ. The Perfection of his life is set forth 
in his going about doing good. He person- 
ally did it; — He did not content Himself with 
doing good by proxy. He was not intermittent 
in this matter, and this fact gives us an enterprise 
and habit for life — Going about doing good. The 
lame man mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles was 
laid at the "Beautiful Gate." The world, as it went 
by, saw only the charming scenery and the natural 
advantages of the temple and its surroundings; the 
artist saw the gate and raved over its beauty; the 
scientist, saw the building and praised its architec- 
ture, its solidity, and its appointments; but Chris- 
tianity saw the poor beggar at the gate, and pro- 
ceeded to help him. Christianity was the best look- 
ing Endeavorer. One bitter cold night when the 
sharp winds were whistling, and the loose boards on 
the houses of the poor were rattling, the blinding 
snow whirling in great sheets of white light in 
the faces of the few belated people as they hurried 
homeward, Henry Ward Beecher with quickened 
footsteps pressed his way toward his comfortable 
home in Brooklyn, N. Y.. As he crossed an alley, 
there crept out of the shadows a little shivering form, 
and with a voice cracked and cold, said "Will you 
buy a paper please?" Mr. Beecher bought all the 
papers the waif had to sell, and slipped a five dollar 
gold piece into his cold hand for good measure. 
"Are you not cold?" said the great preacher. "I 



THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 109 

was sir, until I saw you/' answered the boy, "but 
I am warm enough now." The next day, in telling 
of the event, he said to his companions, "Boys, I 
thought it was an angel." Would you be angels of 
mercy? Then look for the poor, the helpless, the 
cold, the destitute, the hungry, the sick, the dis- 
couraged, and help them, and you will be minis- 
tering spirits, sent of God to do good. 

THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER, IS ONE WHO 
LOOKS FOR GOOD IN OTHERS. 

More models and fewer critics, would be a bless- 
ing to the Christian Endeavor Societies everywhere. 
There is often an angel hidden in the stone which 
God wants us to chisel out. The blind man whom 
Jesus told to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, was 
to the people, nothing more than a beggar, but to 
Him who could see, he was a man of great power 
and usefulness. Jesus saw the splendid possibili- 
ties of that character, and proceeded to develop 
them. For many years he had sat there and begged ; 
his little tin cup had often rung with the touch of 
the coin that some benevolent (?) Pharisee had 
dropped into it. Jesus had no money, but he had 
something better; he had an eye that could see 
something good in the man upon whom all others 
had looked as an object of charity. For many years, 
David fed his father's flocks, and no one ever thought 
of him as anything more than a shepherd boy, until 
God sent Samuel to look for a king. The king had 
been there all the time, but no one had gone to the 
trouble of looking for him. No one ever saw any- 



110 THE GOOD LOOKING ENDEAVORER 

thing more in Saul of Tarsus than a cold, calcu- 
lating, scholarly Pharisee, until God wanted an 
Apostle to the Gentiles, and he found it in him whom 
no one had ever thought worthy. We had a man 
amongst us, who was in his young life very unprom- 
ising. He was a common ox driver among the hills 
of Adams county, Ohio. The Rev. Mr. Daugherty 
thought he saw in him a preacher, and a man of 
great worth to the church. He spoke to him about 
what he saw in him, and of what he thought God 
wanted him to do. At first the young man was in- 
different and even obstinate, saying, "Yes, I think 
God wants me to drive these oxen and haul logs 
to the mill." But at last the man was found, the 
good was located, and the character developed, and 
he rose to place and influence amongst us, as few 
men have ever done. He was on orator, an editor, 
a writer, a preacher, and no one ever heard the Eev. 
A. W. Coan, speak of God and man, who did not 
rejoice that the good that was in him had been seen 
and saved to righteousness. John B. Gough, that 
indefatigable temperance worker, that silver tongued 
orator, that prince among men; that splen- 
did Christian character, was, I am told contem- 
plating suicide, so burdened had his life become; 
but he was followed by a good looking preacher, who 
saw in him something worth saving, and John B. 
Gough was glad to say, that he thought it paid to 
save him. There is something good in every life, 
and if you want to be a good looking endeavorer 

GO LOOK FOR IT. 



THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER. 

Among the beautiful and helpful services of the 
Christian Endeavor Society, is the Consecration ser- 
vice, which occurs once a month. At these special 
meetings, the subject of the consecrated life is made 
prominent, and each member is expected to take 
some part "aside from singing." If a member can- 
not be present at the monthly consecration meeting 
,of the society, he is expected to send at least a 
verse of scripture to be read in response to his name 
at the roll call. 

The word, consecrate, means "to devote," "to 
separate," "to fill the hand," "to dedicate," "to 
make new," "to make perfect." The word, and 
the life for which it stands, received a new bap- 
tism in the 'birth of Christian Endeavor. As in- 
terpreted by the Christian Endeavor Society, it has 
come to have a new meaning and a new purpose. 
The purpose of consecration is divine. It came 
from God and is a child of heaven. The supreme 
need of the pulpit to-day, is a consecrated ministry ; 
the supreme need of the pew, is a consecrated laity ; 
the supreme need of the Young People's Society 
of Christian Endeavor, is a consecrated mem- 
bership; the supreme need of each individual 
is a consecration full and complete to the work of 
saving souls. Our church machinery is ponder- 
ous and of the most improved character; our array 
of formal ceremonies are imposing ; but the fire of en- 
thusiasm burns low, the power is weak, the music is 



112 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 

dull and spiritless, the Sword of the Spirit is well 
nigh out of business in some of our modern assem- 
blies, and the pulpit and the pew have ceased to 
be an effectual weapon against sin. A baptism of 
the Spirit upon the pulpit and pew would add more 
to the efficiency of the church and the power of the 
pulpit, than all the titles ever conferred by human 
schools. It is not ceremonial precision, but spiritual 
power, that the church needs to make it a soul- 
winning institution. This baptism of the Spirit can 
never come until all the tithes are brought into the 
store house; in other words the windows of heaven 
cannot be opened until all we have, and are, is con- 
secrated to God. 

A full consecration, one that is entire, means 
to be, to do and to suffer. This embraces reputation, 
friends, property, time and talent. It includes body 
and soul. These are to be used when, where and as 
God requires. The words which best express the 
fulness of such consecration are altar and "sacrifice." 
Paul says, we are "to present our bodies a living 
sacrifice unto God." The body is to be put into right 
relations with God, and the soul into right relations 
to things infinite and eternal. 

Thus, the entire life — physical, mental and 
spiritual, is consecrated. We are to build character 
and consecrate it to God. We are to keep our bodies 
in a healthful condition, free from the stench and 
stain of tobacco, the corrupting influence of the 
cigarette, and the curse of rum, and consecrate them 
to God. The flesh must be broken down, subdued, 
overruled, refined, glorified ; and then offered to God, 
a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable unto Him. 



THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 113 

This must be a living sacrifice ; the consecration of a 
body in which every member is complete and doing 
its work, simply, lovingly, obediently; the whole 
body alive, but controlled, disciplined and conse- 
crated to the highest and sweetest uses. 

The old sacrifice required a bullock which was 
easly enough slain, but we are to consecrate a spir- 
itual sacrifice, even, of our bodies, minds and souls. 
This consecration does not mean that our pars are to 
be closed to music, nor our eyes to beauties. We are 
to open the ear to the music, and the eye to the 
charming scene of nature and art. It does not 
mean hiding away from the amusements and the 
entertainments of life, but we are to say to them; 
What are you ? What can you do ? We were once on 
a level with you, but are now above you. Once you 
dragged us about as with a cart rope, but now we 
are living sacrifices, consecrated to God, and you 
lead us no more. We are not depleted or disabled 
men and women, but we are full and complete; 
crowned kings and queens unto God, and have that 
highest of all sovereignty, the sovereignty of our- 
selves. 

THIS CONSECRATION MUST BE PERPETUAL. 

We cannot consecrate ourselves in advance. 
That is to say, what I am now, I must consecrate 
now. What I am tomorrow must be consecrated 
tomorrow. I shall be different tomorrow from what 
I am today; and unless I am better in every way, 
stronger, richer, and more Christlike, something has 
failed me, or I have failed in the application of 



114 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 

forces and conditions to my life. What I shall be 
tomorrow depends upon what I am today, and what 
I am today is the aggregate result of all the in- 
fluences of all my past life. Represented in my char- 
acter today, are all the places, companions, books, 
thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds, of my past life. 
This is what I am, and this is what I must lay upon 
the altar. We must get away from ourselves of 
today, get out into broader aisles and wider spheres. 
We must get away from the cradles of to-day, into 
the activities of tomorrow. We should not stay in 
the cradle of life. The cradle may be a silver one, 
with rockers of gold. It may be perfect in propor- 
tion, and elegant in trimming, but it is a cradle 
nevertheless. There was a time when it was roomy 
enough. It was house and home, palace and fortress, 
but we should not be babies, always drinking the 
sincere milk of the word, but men full grown, and 
women beautiful in form and face, and the cradle 
is no place for us ; and it is not enough to consecrate 
it and its tiny occupant to God ; we must consecrate 
men and women, who can eat the strong meat of the 
Gospel. What a helpless thing a baby is, anyway! 
What a little tyrant he is ! He keeps everybody busy 
waiting on him. He is absolute monarch. The 
mother cannot go out, the servant cannot sleep; 
often the father and child take a lonely midnight 
walk. 

The father does the walkin, 
And the baby does the squakin. 

So there are Christians who always want help. 
The deacons must carry salt in one hand and sugar 



THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 115 

in the other. The pastor must carry a bottle of 
gospel milk in his pocket and a tiny spoon in his 
hand. They are always sore, and hurt somewhere. 
They have a sort of a spiritual colic that has to be 
dosed with comforting words, and poulticed with 
flattery and intimations that the church would die 
without them. Well, I love babies. God never gave 
to home or church a better thing than a baby — a 
ray of morning light — a sunset stream of gold — a 
song from the choir of the summer land — a rosebud 
in human hearts, and a good many other things; 
but God never intended them always to remain 
babies. Here in this home is a little one fresh from 
the heart of God, it is six months old, rosy and 
chubby, it cannot speak, it cannot walk, it can do 
nothing. But we are not troubled about that, for 
we know that it is natural. But suppose that at 
the end of two years it is only rosy and chubby. 
That it has not grown any at all, and that it needs 
just as much care and attention as when but six 
months old, would we not conclude that something 
was fearfully wrong with it? That rosebud of the 
sky, which at the age of six months was a joy to 
all, is now a source of anxious thought, and deep 
concern for its mother, and her friends. We rejoice 
w r hen the boy of six can say his a. b. c. but if at 
fifteen or twenty he can only say his a. b. c. we are 
troubled in a sense and turn from him. He has not 
grown, he has not developed, he is not worth con- 
secrating to anything. So God does not want 
babies, if babies have had opportunity to grow into 
men and women. 

What we are now, what we have now, what we 



116 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 

can do now, must be consecrated to God and his 
service. We could not consecrate it before we had 
it. I cannot consecrate a manhood I have not de- 
veloped; I cannot give a dollar that is not mine; 
I cannot lay upon the altar something I have not 
got, and may never get; but what I have must be 
given to God at the time I have it. The Christian 
Endeavorer who is not willing to make such a con- 
secration and unless he actually adds the execution 
to the will by a formal and decided act, has evi- 
dently come short of the one supreme idea of con- 
secration. 

The Rev. Charles Wesley in a most decided and 
accurate way sets forth the act of consecration as 
follows : 

"If so poor a worm as I 

May to thy glory live, 

All my actions sanctify, 

All my words and thoughts receive; 

Claim me for Thy service, Claim 

All I have, and all I am. 

"Take my soul and body's powers; 
Take my memory, mind and will; 
All my goods and all my hours, 
All I know, and all I feel; 
All I think, or speak, or do; 
Take my heart; — but make it new. 

"Now, O God, Thine own I am; 
Now I give Thee back Thine own; 
Freedom, friends and health, and fame, 
Consecrated to Thee alone: 
Thine I live, thrice happy I! 
Happier still if Thine I die." 



THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 117 

THIS CONSECRATION GIVES TO LIFE ONE SUPREME 

PURPOSE. 

The man who makes a consecration of himself 
to God, will henceforth make up his mind to do one 
thing, he may do a hundred other things, but one 
thing he will do. He will determine like Paul, not 
to know anything among men but Jesus Christ and 
him crucified. Men perish intellectually and Chris- 
tians die spiritually, for want of a dominating 
thought. Many a young man today is wandering 
about the world, doing nothing, because he is desti- 
tute of a sovereign purpose, a controlling influence. 
If like David, he had only one desire and like him 
seek after it with an undivided heart and conse- 
crated effort, his whole course in life would be glori- 
fied, his character dignified, and his usefulness in- 
creased manyfold. All the great men and women of 
history have had one supreme purpose, and to the 
accomplishment of that one supreme purpose they 
consecrated all their energies. They set objects be- 
fore themselves, and then worked to accomplish the 
task. Life to the man or woman who has a purpose, 
is worth the living. They never ask the question as to 
the worth of living, they bless humanity and honor 
God. A young person with one purpose in life 
moves with determination and steadily forges ahead. 
In starting in life every young person should set 
out to effect some worthy purpose. They should 
stamp on their minds and engrave on their hearts 
some grand aim and object to be accomplished while 
on the earth, and to this one thing they should give 



118 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 

their entire service. As Paul puts it, "This one 
thing I do." 

To illustrate — Here is a man who goes to New 
York, or Boston to make money. He is fixed in his 
purpose and well defined in his thought. He says 
what I may do in other matters I cannot tell, I am go- 
ing to New York or Boston to make money, and every 
thing else must bend to that. Will you not go into 
some of the museums? I may. Will you not visit 
some of the splendid art galleries? Possibly, all 
depends. Depends upon what? Why, how such 
things effect the one purpose for which I go. That 
in a religious sense is what consecration will do for 
us. It will hold us to the main track. It will anchor 
us to the bed-rock of eternal truth. 

It was Samuel Cunard, of Glasgow, who was 
determined to build ships. He had nothing but a 
penknife, but he whittled out little boats. He was a 
poor boy, but he was ever examining ships. He 
loved ships, and when he loved them enough his 
future was all settled. Samuel Cunard was a poor 
youug man, when they asked him for the design for 
the first Cunard steamship. Then he was employed 
in the company, and then he really became the com- 
pany, and for forty-five years his steamships went all 
over the seas of the world, and never lost a passen- 
ger, having in all 107 steamers on the seas of the 
world. He loved ship building so much that nothing 
else would answer for him. Others have loved ship 
building. But they did not love it enough. 

A supreme purpose always ennobles character. 
In the sight of God and man, character has always 
been, and always will be, of first importance. Every 



THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 119 

young man should consecrate his life to the building 
up of a good strong character; a character for hon- 
esty, temperance, truthfulness, frugality, benevo- 
lence, purity, industry, and good habits. If the 
character is kept clean and the conscience clear, 
every man and woman can be squarely faced, and 
every obstacle successfully met. No one ever has 
to run away from a good character and a clear con- 
science. A good character will always baffle lies, 
and defy unjust criticism. A good character will al- 
ways stand as a monument of truth and right; and 
it will be the one thing in the end of life that will 
be most appreciated by its possessor and those who 
survive him. No matter hoy/ noble the character, it 
is always made better by a religious experience and 
a consecrated service. By this consecration the 
whole range of thought is lifted to a higher plane, 
and the entire life receives tone and power. To me, 
it is sad, to see a purposeless unconsecrated life. 
Can you see that stately vessel; magnificent in its 
trappings, and grand in its proportions? Listen to 
the pulsations of that heart of steel, and the breath- 
ing of those lungs of solid fibre. That vessel is the 
personification of greatness and the expressed 
thought of usefulness. We approach the captain 
and ask, "When do you sail?" "Today." "Where 
do you go?" "Don't know!" "Where will you 
land?" "Oh, most anywhere that fancy or desire 
may suggest !" "With what are you loaded ?" "Oh, 
everything! We could not select!" What is the 
character of the crew and passengers?" "All kinds; 
good, bad, rich, poor, cut throats, liars, thieves, thugs, 
villians, gamblers, drunkards, prostitutes, and de- 



120 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 

ceivers !" "When will you return ?" "Never-" That 
purposeless, uneonsecrated young life, is such a ship. 
Built after God's plan of greatness and usefulness. 
It is launched upon the shoreless sea of time! It 
sails, never to return! From the ports of infancy, 
childhood, youth, school, vigor, early associations 
and enjoyments, it goes, and to them it never re- 
turns ! It may wail out, 

"Backward, turn backward, O time in your flight! 
And make me a child again just for tonight." 

but the ship of life sails on. We ask the young man 
the same questions we asked the captain, and to 
our utter astonishment and dismay, receive the same 
answers ! Going, he knows not, nor cares not where ! 
Will load his life with anything that may please his 
fancy or desire! Hope, avarice, passion, hatred, 
love, caprice, deceit, intrigue, voluptiousness, con- 
cupiscense, etc., etc., and that, too, with the full 
knowledge that he will never return! Somewhere 
on the rock bound coasts of death, where shoals 
abound and vultures feed, a wrecked and ruined life 
will some sad day be found. In one of my old 
books I find the following picture of an uneonse- 
crated life drawn by E. Palmer: 

"Go to some man now past the meridian of life, 
whose character and habits, with the Divine bless- 
ing, have made him honored and successful. He was 
one of a band, more or less numerous, who set out 
in life together. They came forth from their homes 
and from the school room differing, perhaps, but 
little either in their talents or acquirements. Ask 



THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 121 

him to tell you where those, his early associates are 
now, and what he remembers of their history. Ah ! 
how painful the recollection and the recital! One, 
he will say, as he brings back the half forgotten 
past, looked on the wine when it was red, and he 
went early to the drunkard's grave. Another yielded 
to the love of vain display ; and after a brief career 
of brilliant folly and extravagance, he passed by 
bankruptcy to poverty, and was soon forgotten by 
the world. A third indulged, at first, in some trifling 
dishonesty, and then he was led on, till he became a 
villian, and finally went to prison, to an ignominious 
death. A fourth gave loose rein to sensual appetite; 
and then from impurity of thought and word, he went 
on step by step till he suffered the miseries, and met 
at last, the fate of the worn-out profligate. A fifth 
was taken in the gambler's snare, and fell by sui- 
cide. A sixth — but why should I go on? So daily 
perish, on life's broad arena, the hopes of fathers 
and mothers ! So sink into the depths of shame and 
ruin many who should have shone as brilliant stars 
in the galaxy of intellect — should have found a place 
among the noblest spirits that have ever done honor 
to humanity and climbed the enviable heights of 
fair renown. The roadside of life is all whitened 
with the bones of the multitudes who have fallen 
thus, having made, by their own missteps, an utter 
wreck of their hopes, their characters, and their all. 
With such evidence of the perils of life, can it be 
doubted that youth requires a guide with a friendly 
hand to lead them? Young people anchor your 
lives; consecrate them this day unto the Lord. 



122 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 

IN THE CONSECRATION OF SELF, WHICH WE THIS 
NIGHT SHALL MAKE, LET US REMEMBER THAT 
JESUS APPRECIATES WHAT WE DO FOR EACH 
OTHER AS HAVING BEEN DONE FOR HIMSELF. 

The world is good at planning cemeteries, build- 
ing mausoleum, crypt, monument, and statuary; 
but Christ wants the lawyers to do like the Samari- 
tan, and his followers to escape the sad experiences 
of his own life. The world that gave Christ a costly 
tomb in which to rest a few hours, could have given 
him a decent residence in which to live, but it did 
not. If they had used half the cost of that sepul- 
chre in making Christ's life comfortable on earth, 
he would not have said, a the foxes have holes and 
the birds of the air have nests but the son of man 
hath not where to lay his head." We do not want a 
consecration that means only stately piles of stone 
and beautiful monuments for the dead, but a conse- 
cration that means help for the fallen man by the 
wayside ; one that includes oil, wine, beast and hotel 
bills. One that will enable us to write in the dust, 
while proud self righteous pharisees and miserable, 
mean pretenders, pompously accuse wayward 
women. We want a consecration that means less 
tombstone, and more bread; less mortuary honors, 
and more blankets ; less funeral, and more bed room ; 
more taffy for the living, and less epitaphy for the 
dead. One-half the amount now spent at a Burns 
banquet, would have kept the great Scotch poet com- 
fortable for years, and saved him the dreadful ex- 
periences of poverty and toil. Horace Greely was 
outrageously abused while he lived, but was followed 



THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 123 

to the tomb by the president of the United States, 
and the leading men of the army and navy. Bitter 
things for the living, and sentimental things for the 
dead, seems to be the way of the world. Massa- 
chusetts, at the grave of Charles Sumner, tried to 
atone for the ignominious resolutions with which 
the legislature denounced the living senator. It was 
too late. The consecration of a state's tears and 
eulogies, came too late to do him any good. The 
costly monument at Springfield, 111., consecrated by 
the tears and prayer of a grief stricken nation, can- 
not compensate for Boothe's bullet, and the unkind 
words that were thrust into Lincoln's heart, like so 
many spears in the hands of Roman soldiers. Costly 
tomb is that on the banks of Lake Erie an honor to 
this nation, but it in no sense compensates for the 
assassin's bullet, and the bitter experiences of Gar- 
field's life. The McKinley monument, must be the 
greatest the nation's wealth, wisdom, power and love 
can build; but build it mountain high, overlay it 
with gold and stud it with diamonds, yet it will not 
compensate for the sharp, cutting piece of lead, that 
went tearing through the heart of the man 
we all loved so well. We want a consecra- 
tion that means justice to the living, bread for 
the hungry, clothes for the naked, homes for the des- 
titute, charity for the erring, love for the wayward, 
schools for the ignorant, churches for the poor, 
strength for the weak, kind words for the discour- 
aged, and a Christ for all men. All the justice and 
kindness for our lives must be this side the grave. 
The dead cannot look out of the hearse windows, and 
count the carriages in the procession, or see the 



124 5 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 

polish on the granite, or read the epitaph on the 
stone. "I would rather have one little button-hole 
boquet pinned on the lapel of my coat, so that my 
eyes could behold its beauty, and my nostrils, inhale 
its fragrance, than to have a ton of roses, and 
and wreaths placed on my casket." 

Here and now is our opportunity. Who is will- 
ing to consecrate his service "this day" unto the 
Lord? Pure religion is more than a doctrine, more 
than sentiment, ritual, code of action, or ceremony. 

The orphans are around our church doors, hun- 
gry and thirsty; and the widow wails in the street. 
Our consecration must mean room for them. We 
must kindle fires on their cold hearth stones, and 
warm them into life by our kindly deeds. Our 
consecration must take us to the man fallen among 
thieves, and as we look upon him, poor bleeding and 
dying, say to us, 

"Give him a lift, don't kneel in prayer, 
Or moralize on his despair; 
The man is down, and his great need, 
Is ready help, not prayer nor creed. 

"'Tis time when the wounds are washed and healed, 
That the saintly motives be revealed, 
But now, what e're the spirit may be, 
Mere words are but a mockery. 

"One grain of aid to him is more 
Just now, than tomes of earthly store; 
Pray if you must in your full heart, 
But give him a lift, give him a start. 

"The world is full of good advice, 
Of prayers, and praise and preaching nice, 
But the generous soul that aids mankind, 
Is scarce as gold, and as hard to find." 



THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 125 

But there is another phase of this consecration 
well worthy of our consideration, namely, What we 
have is to he conseci~ated. We so often hesitate to 
do what we could, because we cannot do what we 
want to do. We forget that all great works are 
done by serving God with what we have in hand. 
God wanted a man to go to Pharaoh. Moses was 
keeping sheep in Midian; God said, "You go;" but 
he shrank from the undertaking. He had nothing in 
his hand but a shepherd's rod, cut out of a thicket, 
with which he guided his sheep. Any day he might 
throw it away, and cut a better one. God said, " 
What is in thy hand?? With this rod, with this 
stick, thou shalt serve Israel," and so it proved. 

"What is in thine hand ?" said God to Shamgar. 
"An ox-goad, with which I urge my lazy beasts." 
"Use it for me," and Shamgar's ox-goad defeats the 
Philistines. 

"What is in thine hand David?" "My sling, 
with which I keep the wolves from the sheep." Yet 
with that sling he slew Goliath, of whom an army 
had been afraid. 

"What is in thine hand, disciples?" "Nothing 
but five barley loaves, and two small fishes." "Bring 
them to me," said the Christ, "and with them do 
the best you can," and the multitude was fed. 

What is in thine hand, poor woman? Only an 
alabaster box of ointment. Give it to God. Break 
it, do what you can with it, and the perfume thereof 
shall fill the church forever. 

Dorcas, what hast thou? Only my needle. 
That's enough. Use it for God, and the garments 
for the poor shall be multiplied throughout all time. 



126 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 

Pastor, what hast thou? An opportunity to 
visit the sick ; well, do not fail in that, and in heaven 
thy reward shall be sure. 

Young people, what have you? Only happy, 
hopeful hearts, a few songs and flowers. Well con- 
secrate them this day to the service of God, and the 
melody of your songs shall never cease, and the 
fragrance of your flowers shall fill the whole earth. 

We must not wait until we have fortune and 
fame to consecrate to God, we must consecrate what 
we have now. Bring forth everything separately — 
yourself, your family, your reputation, your prop- 
erty; relinquish all claim, and surrender the whole 
to God, to use and enjoy them only as he directs, 
and then, and then only, will your consecration be 
acceptable to Him. This is the task that Jesus sets 
for us, and his own life is our example. He was 
poorer than the poor ; "f oxes had holes, and the birds 
of the air had nests, but the Son of Man had not 
where to lay his head ;" and yet no life ever blessed 
humanity as did his: no power ever lifted the race 
to such heights, as did the power of his consecrated 
words and deeds. He taught the world a better les- 
son, and a truer way. He showed that it was not 
a material power that was to lift this poor sin 
cursed world above itself, and relate it to God, but 
consecrated life and love. When Peter and John 
were asked by the lame man at the beautiful gate for 
alms, Peter replied, that silver and gold they had 
none, but what they had was to be shared by 
every unfortunate man of the world. Well if they 
did not have silver and gold, what did they have, that 
was worth having? Peter said that it was 



THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORBR 127 

something better. They had divine energy, 
spiritual life, social sympathy, consecrated man- 
hood. We must remember that words warm as 
well as blankets ! that fires are kindled with love as 
well as with matches ! Bear this in mind that he who 
has benedictions for poor discouraged hearts, has 
at least, gone up toward the manhood of the Christ. 
To spend an hour with some lonely heart ; to create 
an atmosphere of love and friendship, around the 
solitary traveler; to lift the burden for one short 
moment only, from the overloaded back, is to do as 
the Master would have us do, and by such deeds only 
do we reveal the better angel of our nature. If you 
would come up to the offering of the evening sacri- 
fice with glowing thankful hearts, ready to receive 
any suggestion that the Spirit would make, then 
spend the preceding hours in doing good to those who 
sit in the shadows,and dwell alone in the gloom. Visit 
the poor and the friendless ; hear their dreary tales ; 
listen with your hearts to the story of their dis- 
appointment; give ear to all their sad experiences; 
pour into the night of their lives a little of the sun- 
light of your own glad day, or whisper to them the 
fact that you too have suffered and have been dis- 
appointed; and when you come up to the house of 
God in the gold and purple of the sunset time, it will 
not be with any spirit of criticism, but with loving 
tender sympathies, and from the first note to the 
last, there shall be for your souls the presence of 
God and the joy of heaven. 

A little, thoroughly consecrated to God, means 
more for humanity, than all the world may have, if 
unconsecrated. .We have martial genius of the high- 



128 THE CONSECRATED ENDEAVORER 

est order in such men as Napoleon and Alexander; 
but it was unconsecrated, and they struck terror 
into the hearts of the race, and filled their age with 
the cries of the widow, the sighs of the orphan, and 
rent the heavens with the groan of the dying and 
oppressed. We have oratorical genius in Mirabeau, 
Danton and Murat ; but it was unconsecrated, and it 
scattered the seeds of a black infidelity and a bloody 
revolution, not only through the city of Paris, but 
through all cities into all countries. We 
have poetic genius in such men as Voltaire, and 
Byron; but it was unconsecrated, and their effus- 
ions flashed upon the virtuous sentiments of the 
human heart, like scathing lightning, on tender 
trees. We have the genius of scientific thought 
and literary skill in Bolingbroke, in Hobbs, in 
Compt, and Mill; but it was unconsecrated, and 
their words sap the very foundations of true faith 
in spiritual existence, in God and the future life. 
No it is not power that lifts the world! It is con- 
secrated power! Young people you may be poor in 
the world's wealth; you may never know the pleas- 
ure of inventive genius, or the glory of an author's 
fame; but if you consecrate your services this day 
unto the Lord you will find heights and depths, 
and breadth, and joys, and hopes, and love, and God, 
and life, and spheres, and heaven, which must re- 
main forever unknown to the unconsecrated. 



NOV 2 1904 



